Jinchuuriki
by biacebaolck
Summary: Do you really think Shukaku gave up that easily? Or Kyuubi for that matter? Demons aren't known for being merciful, so what makes you think they'll be to their hosts? A plot that runs slowly, and the Game begins to decide the game of survival. Winner is-?
1. Gaara

**Author's Note:**** I KNOW I should be focusing on my other fanfictions but I can't help it! I'm a sucker for inspirations. I always post stuff up without considering: 'Will I _still _be having this inspiration for months to come?'**

**I'm kinda stupid when it comes to stories. I always make new ones and never really update. Please forgive me, everyone!

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**Gaara**

_**By: biacebaolck**_

Gaara…

The very word sent shivers up the spines of others.

Gaara…

The demon.

His hands crunched into fists as his eyes glared at the sky as if doing so would kill everyone around him. He hated them. He hated them all. He wanted to kill them all. Just like his mother had wanted him to.

He was alone. Alone.

Gaara.

Feared by all.

But there was one.

Uzumaki Naruto…

He felt his bruised cheek, the one that Naruto had punched just a few hours ago. His whole body ached, but he forced himself to continue standing on the cliff. He would not collapse. He wouldn't. He couldn't.

His pride would not allow him to.

Naruto…was just like him…but not so.

Naruto was lucky. And Gaara was grateful he hadn't been able to kill the blond who had been the one to have beat the sense into him. Plus, Shukaku was in deep slumber now. He knew…for a few nights anyway…he could sleep properly.

But sleeping didn't matter to him.

A flash. A brilliant idea. Call it what you may. If Shukaku was asleep and unable to do anything to him…then…

The demon carrier whirled around on his heel so that he was facing the rock wall. Slamming his fist into it, Gaara watched the wall still stand, his hand broken and bleeding. He felt it. He FELT the pain. He FELT his blood.

A tingle flew through him and he gazed at his broken open right hand as though it was a stranger. He gazed at it in wonder. He felt pain. He felt his blood. Dripping away from him, his blood was leaving his body.

It was a wondrous experience.

Gaara swallowed, unable to believe that all this was real.

He could FEEL PAIN!

A smile found its way to his lips. Not a sadistic one. Not a bloodthirsty one like the one he had on a few hours ago while fighting with Shukaku.

A genuine, grateful smile.

He felt like…he was stranger to all this. His smile gradually disappeared as he thought.

These emotions were wondrous to experience. They were so different from the ones he was used to. Like these had been taken from a stranger and given to him to try out. He felt like he was in a stranger's body. So much things he could now enjoy for a while and hate as he wished.

He could say words he normally wouldn't have been able to say…words he normally wouldn't have wanted to say at all. All thanks to Naruto.

Naruto…

The very name thought out was like a blessing again and again.

His blooded hand closed into a fist and Gaara felt the pain of his bones. A shivering lingering from the bottom of his spine rose up it. He laughed then. Not a sadistic laugh. Not a crazy laugh.

A happy laugh. A grateful laugh.

That was the laugh.

The laugh he had heard others laugh. The laugh he himself as a child had longed to have.

And now it was his.

And to add to the pleasure, the KazeKage had been killed. That _father_ – father? The bastard hadn't even KNOWN what the word should've meant when he killed his mother just to bring out a demon – had been the source of his suffering. The reason he had been forced to live a prejudiced life on this difficult road of a Suna shinobi.

He knew what he had to do. He wouldn't let Shukaku rule his life.

He had his own life to live out.

And that was the exact moment…

The exact moment that he smiled up at the sky.

And inside his heart…his heart – if he still had it – was crying grateful tears.

_Thank you, Naruto. Thank you for everything._


	2. The True Meaning of Friendship

**The True Meaning of Friendship**

_**By: biacebaolck**_

Sabaku no Gaara, the KazeKage of Suna, sat boredly at his desk, left cheek cupped by his left arm, the elbow of that arm firm on the desk as he viewed paperwork after paperwork.

It was bad enough that he had taken that bastard of a father's job. It was bad enough he had to serve the people of Suna, the very same people that had ridiculed him in his youth. Yet, he had chosen this job. So that he too, just like Naruto had wanted to... He too, could protect the village and prove them wrong.

It was hard work.

So why did he have to…DEAL with all this paperwork?!

His sand flicking around him in annoyance, and Gaara turned his thoughts back to the past. How he had been feared, brought and raised to think that he was just a weapon…how his fight with Naruto had changed him.

Others would've called it peculiar; some would've called it strange. But Kankuro and Temari chose to call it 'Friendship'. Friendship? He wondered. What did the word mean? And, now that he thought about it…how did it apply to him and Naruto?

Dictionary.

The idea flashed in his mind as he willed the sand to get the book for him as he finished doing the paperwork. Quickly, he read over the document. Something about repairing the school and adding more to it. The school. Why the blasted hell would he care about that?! Nevertheless, he signed it, and placed down his pen with forced notion not to fling it across the room. Then, he placed the document away, before receiving the book from his sand.

Friendship.

He flipped through the pages. He had never really been taught how to read kanji, because all the teachers had either hated him from birth or feared him enough not to do the job properly. But being KazeKage required being able to read the paperwork as well as protect the Suna Village, so Temari had rather FORCED him to learn.

Gaara would never admit it, but secretly, he was grateful.

_Friendship_

He had found the definition.

_The state of being a friend; association as friends: to value a person's friendship._

_A friendly relation or intimacy._

_Friendly feeling or disposition._

Friendliness; good will: a policy of friendships toward other nations 

He stared at the page. Or rather, at one particular word.

What the blasted HELL did intimacy mean?!

_Intimacy_

_A close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person or group._

_A close association with or detailed knowledge or deep understanding of a place, subject, period of history, etc :_ an intimacy with Japan.

_An act or expression serving as a token of familiarity, affection, or the like: _to allow the intimacy of using first names.

_The quality of being comfortable, warm, or familiar: _the intimacy of the room.

From what he could discern from the text, 'intimacy' meant something along the lines of Friendship. What a waste of his time. Now what the hell did disposition mean?!

_Disposition_

_The predominant or prevailing tendency of one's spirits; natural mental and emotional outlook or mood; characteristic attitude: _**a girl with a pleasant disposition.**

_State of mind regarding something; inclination: _**a disposition to gamble.**

_Arrangement or placing, as of troops or buildings._

Gaara really didn't understand it literally, but he understood the gist of it. The meaning was that friendship was the state of being friends, the link that friends had. It was just the friendly part he didn't get. What _WAS_ friendly?

_Friendly_

_Characteristic of or befitting a friend; showing friendship: _**a friendly greeting.**

_Like a friend; kind; helpful: _**a little friendly advice.**

_Favorably disposed; inclined to approve, help, or support: _**a friendly bank.**

_Not hostile or at variance; amicable: _**a friendly warship; friendly natives.**

_A person who is in sympathetic relationship to oneself or one's side; one who shows no hostility. _

Friendly? Naruto fit the description a little, if not perfectly. But, during their last battle, Gaara mused; Naruto was quite hostile and strong. It was a wondrous battle, and battle that taught him a lot. Drumming his free hand rhythmically on the desk, Gaara finally stood up.

He was god damned tired of this place. Should he exit by door or just destroy the wall and leave? He could've smiled then if he had not been so deep in thought. No, Temari would kill him. Not that he cared because he knew she would never be strong enough, but he had a reason to live. Plus, getting pointless injuries was not on his to-do list. He exited the room by the door, passing by one of his advisors.

"KazeKage-sama, you shouldn't be—" The man began before Gaara turned to look stonely at him.

"_What_ is it?" He growled, his voice filled with annoyance.

"N- Nothing, KazeKage-sama…nothing…nothing at all…" The man trailed off as Gaara continued to stare at him.

"Go."

"Y- Yes, of course! Good day to you, KazeKage-sama!" And with that the man hurriedly left.

Gaara sighed, but a ghost of a smirk appeared on his lips. This _was_ getting rather entertaining, but he had heard earlier that Naruto was coming to Suna very soon, and that was enough to make him want to hurry.

As soon as Gaara stepped out of the building, however, he was immediately bowled over by a hug so forceful that he knew only ONE person was capable of doing. "N- Naruto …" He managed to gasp out. "If you don't let me go, I'll kill you."

He was answered by Naruto letting him go and laughing, hitting him on the back. "Ne, Gaara! Heheh, you shouldn't be so lost in thought! And what's with all this killing stuff, eh? We're friends, remember?"

"Friends." Gaara echoed softly. He remembered the definitions in his mind like he was reading them yet again straight off the page.

"Yep!" Naruto beamed. "And that means since we're gonna be friends FOREVER…our friendship is really STRONG! Now, let's go get some RAMEN!"

Naruto practically began to drag him to the ramen stand in Suna before Gaara regained his composure and yanked his arm out of the blond's grip. Naruto only grinned wider, instead of looking insulted. That was one of the things that Gaara liked about Naruto.

Friendship.

Friends.

Forever?

Gaara liked the sound of that.

And the feeling wasn't something you could look up in a dictionary. It was just there, in his soul, and in his heart.

And for the first time since that day long ago just hours after his first battle with Uzumaki Naruto, Sabaku no Gaara smiled a genuine smile, finally understanding the TRUE meaning of Friendship.


	3. Learning to Forget

**Author's Note: Hey, all! Well, to be honest, I didn't really expect this to go further than two chapters, but since I'm feeling guilty... Anyway, I've decided to make this more than a short ficlet. Maybe this'll last for one more chapter. Maybe another. We'll see.**

**In the mean time, please review! Thankyou!

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**Learning to Forget**

_**By: biacebaolck**_

Where am I?

That was the first thing the KazeKage thought.

Where was he exactly? Well, in this tunnel thing or something. But he already knew that. What he wanted to know, was WHERE exactly. What place was he in?! What country?! What village?!

Upon thinking the word 'village', Gaara's heart gave a tremor of fear. Fear? No, Sabaku no Gaara did not allow for such trivial things.

No.

He shook his head, trying to clear that last thought out. In his desperation, he punched the wall. His hand stung like crazy, but the pain had its desired affect. He could think a little bit more clearly. Plus, the wall brick crumbled.

About that fear…

No, Sabaku no Gaara did not allow fear. But…why was he so scared?

Worried?

Was this what they called anxiousness?

Gaara wondered that as he stood up and made his way through the tunnel, his hand flat on the tunnel bricks all this time. The splashing of the dull, murky water and the musty smell of something that Gaara couldn't really understand.

He didn't know this smell.

Plus, growing up in the desert and village of Sunagakure, Gaara had never really seen this much water in his life.

Fingers.

His fingers.

Trembling. He bit his lower lip. Damn. Trembling? Trembling was a sign of fear. He knew that. He had always. Always. The victim was always trembling before he killed them. Or even before he fought them. Trembling.

Uzumaki Naruto had never trembled.

He blinked.

Naruto?

"Gaara! Where are you?! Come on, Gaara! This is not damn funny! Answer me!" Naruto's voice seemed to echo from in front of him.

Ignoring the wet and freezing cold temperatures of the sewer water and his shivering, Gaara splashed the waters with his legs as he struggled to walk faster in this mucky and murky water. Why was he so eager?

Naruto?

He was going crazy.

He must be.

Why the heck would Naruto be here in the first place?

His hand went sharply to the left as it followed the wall. He skidded abruptly, tripping over his own feet and his determination to regain balance. He fell with a rather large splash in the water. The water…he noted…was freezing as it was deep. It was surprising that it was only knee-length before.

Air.

A necessity for any living thing.

Gaara quickly forced his body upwards to the surface of the water, breaking it, and, without dignity, gulping in great gulps of air like a total buffoon.

No, not like a total buffoon.

Sort of like Naruto.

He blinked.

He was crazy.

He had to be.

He shivered as some sort of breeze made its way to him, and brushed against him in all his wet glory. Breeze. A breeze meant wind. And wind meant outside. There was an outside to this place, so dimly lit that Gaara could barely see anything but the faint outline of his hand.

"Gaara!"

There it was again.

Naruto's voice.

Only louder.

"Gaara!"

Again?

He found himself forcing a walk, but the walk felt smoother, like whatever murkiness that had trapped him before, had disappeared.

Light.

The light was better here.

Gaara realized that.

But there was only enough for him to see himself and the doorless tunnels that appeared from his left and right with each few metres. In this long tunnel, Gaara didn't want to get lost. It seemed to never end.

"Gaara! I know you're there! If you can hear my voice! Come here! Fast! C'mon! You have to come here! Hurry! Gaara!"

The urgency.

Gaara could sense it.

He didn't know it, but he could sense it. Why?

"Gaara!"

Gaara broke into a sprint, nearly tripping a few times as he struggled to run faster and faster against water that was now up to his waist. He could barely move. His eyes were narrowed as he surveyed around him after a good time of running, his chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath.

"_GAARA!_"

This time, Gaara knew exactly where to go.

Forward.

The sound was coming from forward.

Instinct told him. But he didn't listen to instinct. He listened with his ears with passion.

Ignoring the tunnels that lead elsewhere, Gaara sloshed forward at a rather undignified pace and manner. He nearly tripped at several times, and did most of the time, bitterly wishing, as came back each and every time, trying to catch his breath.

It was times like these he wished there was sand around.

Wait.

He had sand.

His gourd.

He nearly broke into a smile before realizing that his gourd was missing from his back. Because of the water's astounding ability to pull him down, Gaara hadn't noticed the missing weight, concentrating more on the heavy weight of his clothing.

Damn it!

He cursed rather loudly and blinked.

Normally, he wouldn't have let such little-meaning things distern him from what he was going to do.

Do?

His eyes widened.

Oh shit!

Looking around widely and in a flurry, Gaara struggled to hear Naruto's voice.

Nothing.

Panic.

That was what Gaara felt now.

Panic.

He forced himself to calm down. He had last heard Naruto's voice…where?

_Forward._

And forward he went.

He didn't know…

Gaara didn't know how long he walked forward, practically swimming at neck length water, before the water started to sink lower, and lower until it had been back to knee length. He blinked a couple of times before looking at his surroundings.

Oh.

Shit.

There was the wall…the brick crumbled.

He was back where he had started!

"Gaara!" Naruto's voice cheered as though he was near.

What?

"Naruto?" He asked, his voice sounding like a hoarse croak.

He heard sloshing and turned to his left. There, a tired, yet happy and smiling Naruto greeted him. "Hey." He gave a weak laugh. "There you are. I was worried you got lost or something and saw something bad…"

"Bad?"

"Yeah…" Naruto scratched the back of his head embarrassed. "…from stuff that stupid fox did."

"Fox?" Finally, Gaara came back from his stunned senses. "Where are we, Naruto?!"

"Uhm…we're at uh…Yamigakure, the village of Darkness and sewers?"

"This is not the time for jokes."

Naruto face-faulted. "All right! All right! Just come with me, it's too hard to explain, but it'll be better to show you instead…"

"Show me what?"

"How we're so alike." Was Naruto's answer as he gripped Gaara by the wrist and pulled him through the water into a tunnel. They winded through many tunnels like a snake, and by now, Gaara's head was spinning from this maze. "We're here."

If Gaara had anything to say, it was immediately drowned out by the sound that gargled out of his mouth, like a mouse being strangled. He stared up at a huge cage, his eyes catching a slip of paper with kanji in it. He felt stone cold as a large figure appeared from behind the cage bars, dripping fangs and monstrous eyes.

"Kyuubi." Was the only thing his blank mind chose to stay.

"Yah. We're, ah…" Naruto scratched his head. "Somewhere in here." He pointed to his stomach. "That's where the seal is, at least, so I'm guessing…"

**_How are you, brat of Shukaku?_**

Gaara nearly jumped.

_**Surprised? Heh. That's what humans are. Idiots.**_

"HELL! Take that back, you stupid fox!"

_**Oh-ho, so the stupid gaki decides to speak at last. What are you doing here? You want more power? And you've brought the lone-tail's container.**_

"We…"

"You brought me here, Naruto?"

"No!" Naruto yelled, before wincing, sticking his hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched. "I mean…Gaara, I don't know! I don't frickin' know what's going on! I don't even know how you got pulled into this!"

_**Do you want me to show you two how I slaughtered the great ninja of Fire Country to help pass the time?**_

Kyuubi's voice was sickening and scarily sweet. Instinctively, Naruto and Gaara both took a step—a couple—no, a WHOLE LOT of steps backwards, away from the sealed nine-tailed fox demon.

_**Oh come now, I can show you both how I ripped each one apart by their limps, ripped out that skin and took apart muscle and—**_

"I think I'm going to be sick…" Gaara murmured, desperately trying to block out that fox's voice, but it came louder and louder.

_**Why don't I just explain it to you gaki while you make up your minds? First, you give them one good swat and grip your fangs onto their skin and pull. The screams are rather lovely and while you chew and digest, it's positively remarkable that you can taste their fear and—**_

"Stop! Stop…stop…" Gaara fell to his knees. "Stop…please…I'm beginning…to…I'm begging…"

_**Oh ho…What's this? I thought you were just like me, lusting for blood…power…fear and—**_

"SHUT UP, YOU STUPID FOX! Leave Gaara alone!" Naruto's voice was sharp and full of indescribable anger. "It's obvious you weren't the one to bring us here so…c'mon Gaara!" Naruto pulled, or rather, yanked the Shukaku container to his feet, nearly pulling off his arm in the process. "Let's find our own way out of here!"

_**Don't mind me!**_

The fox's laugh grew more on their nerves as the hair on the back of their necks stood on end.

_**I'm sure you'll be back, one-tail gaki! We'll have lots of fun! I can show you how the digestion of the prey works on demons!**_

Gaara turned pale and started shaking uncontrollably as the laughter grew more and more hysteric and bloodthirsty. Naruto shut his eyes tightly and grit his teeth. This couldn't be happening. They couldn't leave. And the darkness seemed to contain them as they walked, the waves of the water splashing against them.

Cold.

Wet.

And scared.

With no way out.

"I…want to die…" Gaara managed out, before collapsing.

"Gaara!"

Suddenly, in a flash of light, both containers found themselves between the bridges of awake and unconsciousness, lying down on the sands under the scorching sun of Sunagakure. Desert. They were back in the desert.

"Ga…ara…?" Naruto feebly managed out. He was weak, as was Gaara. "You had…just…you had forgotten about that…didn't you?"

The scorching sun was heaven, compared to that hell.

"Ye…a…h…" Gaara weakly coughed.

"Don't worry…" Naruto forcefully pushed himself up, but his arms buckled and he fell to the sand. Both coughed, and Naruto dragged himself to Gaara by his chin, and Gaara had the sudden memory of Naruto doing the same thing…during their battle in Konoha.

He shut his eyes. The sun was getting to him. It hurt…really…bad…

"Gaara?"

"Yeah…?" He opened his eyes, turning his head to face Naruto. It took all his strength. He could see Naruto was out of strength too.

"You'll learn to forget…you're already learning…that's a good thing…"

"…" Gaara didn't answer…he wasn't very happy about it…

"Gaar…a!"

"…?"

Naruto gave a weak grin.

"You'll learn to forget. You're learning to forget. I'll help you out, Gaara! I'll help you out, okay?"

"Thanks…" Gaara felt his vision blurring. "…Naruto…"

"No problem…" He heard Naruto's voice before he passed out. "That's what friends are for…"

WHUMP

The two shinobi lay unconscious on the sands and only after a few hours, were they discovered by Temari and Kankuro, leading a search party.


	4. Never Really Remembered

**Never really remembered**

_**By: biacebaolck **_

_He never really remembered,  
__He never really forgot.  
__He never really thought of,  
__The thoughts of him,  
__That others thought._

_He never cared, he never wept,  
__He never screamed, yet he always kept,  
__The longing for blood,  
__For death, for killing,  
__But much more of this pain,  
__His heart be able to keep willing?

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_

…

…

…

…

The sun seemed to hate him more and more. Gaara couldn't understand it. He had lived in this place for his life, his childhood. Yet why was he suddenly not adapting at that moment? He couldn't understand it. Maybe he never would.

The sun glinted to his eyes, even as they, shut deeply as he could, blocked out the sun as best as they could, in direct sunlight, it was no good.

Grunting, he turned to his right, unconsciously gripping the blankets with him, but still the light shone on. He gave a disgruntled hatred and loathing for the sun before turning the other way. Thankfully, that direction was cool and content, and his furrowed and upset facial features relaxed as he wore the look of one sleeping.

His back was burning, though.

Discomfort of burning sun on his back soon ruined his calm sleeping façade as he tried to continue. Closing his eyes was quite nice. He didn't want to get up. Rather, his body felt too heavy and too sluggish to move.

He snuggled the pillow and…

…

…

…

…

…was suddenly mugged by some sort of random flying object that immediately got him sitting up, hand over one eye and cursing the blood of the one who had thrown it. He was glaring at a sheepish Naruto who scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Whoops…" Naruto slowly gave an edgy grin.

Gaara sighed, and he felt the sun's rays kill both his molecules and him. He wished his sand would cover it, but his gourd was nowhere to be found, he noted. So, with the sunlight in his eyes as he leapt off the cot, barefoot, arm raised in meager defense of the sun, squinting, he pulled down the blinds and practically ripped the curtains together.

He gave a sigh of relief as the sun was blocked out. Nearly all of it.

There was still enough annoyance on his features to make the hairs on the back of the nurse walking in stand up as tall as they could go. "G-Gaara-sama? Y-you're awake?" She squeaked, her legs shaking between her, the tray she was holding shaking the contents and nearly spilling them if Naruto hadn't intervened and taken it from her, thanking her. She nearly screamed 'bloody murder' for having contact with one of them Demons, but Gaara gave a glare and she immediately was out the door.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, before turning to Naruto, where his eyebrows would've been, was furrowed skin. "What happened?" he asked, surprised that his tone was so dry and quiet. His throat hurt, come to think of it. Like sand, he thought, as he clenched his teeth together and heard the sound and felt the taste of the sand on his tongue.

It all came back to him.

Gaara started shaking uncontrollably that his legs gave way under him. Naruto was immediately by his side.

"Gaara! Calm down! CALM DOWN! Breath in! Out! Breathe! BREATHE!"

It was then that Gaara…

_"Don't you think I've had enough?!" She screamed. "STOP IT! STOP IT, PLEASE!" _

_He paid her no head and only nodded at the Kage's advisor, who gestured for the others to chain the woman down, the screaming woman who would soon be bringing murder and anger onto their heads. Slowly, the Sand ninja did as they were told and stepped back as he withdrew a single scroll from the sleeve of his robe. _

_Throwing it effortlessly into the air, at about 500,000 feet, he preformed only a single seal, the Rooster, before uttering a sharp, "Kai." _

_It exploded with such ferocity and such a bang that the houses shook and the sand quaked underneath them, shifting structures and the like that normally would not have been moved due to nature's normality. Wind whipped from every corner and the ninja had to shield their eyes to prevent damage to their sight. _

_She continued screaming, wrenching at her restraints, in fear. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to die. NO! SHE WAS NOT GOING TO DIE! "NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!" She screamed for all it was worth. "PLEASE, I'LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT! JUST LET ME GO! PLEASE! I WANT TO LIVE!" Her cries were in vain, as everyone's attention was now focused on the looming shadow that grew near. _

_The ground shuddered with every large connection to the sandy ground. As the shadow grew nearer and louder and larger, its features became more designed, revealing the shape and shadow. _

_It was… _

_The shinobi present, trembled in its might and glory, legs begging to run, run to save their lives. Their own lives. They wanted to live and not die. Even he took a step back, his body trembling itself, though a scared look was on his face, and determination was obvious. _

_"So you've come!" Somehow, he managed to get his voice to not sound full of fear, but with spite and anger. "You've come, Shukaku!" _

**_Shukaku._**

_  
Answering true to the call, Shukaku let out a howl, his lifespan under 50, 000 years, restricting him the ability to speak. Raising a large, monstrous claw, he howled once more, in true demonic fashion before bringing it down with a shriek that shook even the large sand mountains themselves along with the help of the ferocious wind, the mountains that had forever guarded the entrance to Suna, the mountains that had been said to have been created first by the creator by those who believed in Him—Kami-sama. _

_Yet Shukaku's shriek was not as loud as the shriek of the woman that night. _

_The born babe, gave a shriek as loud as his mother's and immediately, snapped out of his stunned fear, he shouted, "_**_Gogyou Fuin: Five Elements Seal!_**_" before quickly making the seals—Water, Metal, Earth, Fire, Wood—burned on chakra on five fingers of one of his hands. "Hold down the beast!" _

_As feared as they were, the ninja still present and those that had no run away at the shriek of the one-tailed demon, their normal fear of him was nothing compared to the continuously growing mountain-high fear of Shukaku. _

_"But what do we do?!" _

_"Why don't YOU?!" _

_"I don't wanna die!" _

_Those were the loudest amongst the strangled-like fearing replies. _

_"I don't care how you do it!" He roared, the amount of chakra taking for the seals on his fingers, taking its toll on his body. "DO IT NOW BEFORE MY CHAKRA RUNS OUT AND WE ALL DIE!" _

_Instinctively as the beast drew near, they used every possible jutsu of theirs. As the ninja with the most experience, knowledge of jutsu and chakra of the Suna village, they were considered the most powerful, next to the Kage and the ANBU themselves, who were currently outside of the village, having been sent to Konoha to aid in the sealing of Kyuubi. _

_Gritting his teeth, he made his way to the highest level he could before leaping forward and thrusting his hand in Shukaku's belly, before the beast had time to react and use one of its attacks. _

_He was immediately swung away into a house, wind knocked out of him. Shukaku raised a claw and brought it down with a howl, but to his surprise, his wind did not come out. With anger of realizing his powers had been sealed away, Shukaku set about with physical attacks. _

_Every few human lifespan, when a demon container died, the demon sealed within had a portion of itself given to the container to protect (which, usually wasn't more than a mustard seed), that portion of the demon would die before it was released back into the world of the living and terrorized the world once more. Certain ninja had discovered, centuries beforehand, that each beast responded to the calling of itself being released before being blasted to pieces. That part of itself could be a claw, a fang, whatever the demon left behind—that would be sealed within a scroll and given to the Kage who ruled the village nearest where the demon had last tread before last sealed. _

_"Give the child the Seishingan drug." He ordered, and the advisor of the Kage nodded before forcing the babe the take the drug that would force the user's body to become accustomed to the unnatural increase in power, but also kill them in the process. Luckily, he knew the remedy to soften the effects from death to a temporary coma. Making his way to the child, he made the seals to the C-rank jutsu: Boar, Hare, Ox—before mumuring, softly, his voice cracked and dry, "**Shikoko Mujin: Four Dark Mist Array**!_" 

_The child stopped screaming, falling into a coma, unconscious. His mother looked horrified. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!" She shrieked, but he turned a blind ear to her words._

_As Shukaku was temporarily occupied in one spot from multiple jutsu on it. Even though the jutsu didn't even affect his body, Shukaku found it amusing to let the ninja have their fun before squashing all their hopes and whatever they were planning into mince meat. _

_A fatal mistake for underestimating the enemy. _

_"_**_Fuukoku Houin: Dark Sealing Method!_**_" Dragon, Serpent, Rooster, Dog! _

_And suddenly, the one-tails Shukaku disappeared into the body of the slumbering child, allowing the babe to become stronger, without actually harming it. With a self-satisfied smile that he had sealed a Bijuu, he turned to the exhausted ninja. _

_"Kill the woman." He ordered suddenly, in a monotone voice. "She is of no use to us when she can affect the child's judgement." _

_"Hai." Relieved at receiving such an easy task, one of the shinobi made their way to the woman, who had found a way to break her restraints and was now hugging her babe protectively. _

_"Y-you can't! He's just a baby! You can't just kill me! He's my chi—!" She never got to finish that word, for in one quick motion, she was struck in the heart with a kunai, her death grip clutching the babe protectively to her chest as she fell. "Gaara…" She gasped, as her life ebbed away from her, her eyes clouding over as a sign of death. "His name is Gaara…" Anger seeped through her voice and it rose, even though it grew weak, like a hoarse squeak in the voice. "Gaara…KILL them…" Her breathing grew heavier and louder as her voice grew weaker and heavier. "…revenge…give them…my reven…" _

_She never finished what she wanted to tell her child. _

_He only broke her fingers and her forearm bones before taking away the still slumbering child. "His name is Gaara. The woman named him. It is only right that his birth mother give him a name and nothing else. Now, we welcome into this village, Gaara. A weapon to be feared, isn't that right, Yashamaru?" _

_The twin brother of the deceased clenched his hands noticeably in anger. He had been held back at the re-entering of the village, upon sudden notice that his twin sister would be killed for the sake of a human weapon. And he had just arrived back. Knowing to keep his tongue, all Yashamaru said was… _

_"Hai, KazeKage-sama."_

**_The man that had killed Gaara's mother for the sake of a human weapon… _**

**_… _**

**_…was her own husband and KazeKage._**

_At the age of 6, however, the KazeKage grew feared of even his own son and constantly sent assassins. Yashamaru was one of them, and the one who imprinted the word demon/assassin and the mantra **I love only myself** into the boy. _

_7 years flew by in a blur, and Gaara found himself more eager for blood than anything else. Mother wanted that… _

_For some reason, his mind couldn't let go of the fact that the voice always talking in his head, that smooth, crooning voice…was his mother. Perhaps it was only that, that kept him sane. It kept him on his mantra. Loving only himself, his mother was a part of himself. _

_He loved his mother. _

_That's why he'd kill for her. _

_Kill all the scum. Kill. Kill. _

_Kill. _

**_KILL!_**

…bloodshot eyes snapped open and Gaara gave a howl that ferociously reminded Naruto of the Shukaku and he immediately ducked out of the way as Gaara punched where Naruto's head had been. Right through the wall, his fist extending to the other side.

"Err…GAARA?!" Naruto squeaked as that crazy look returned to Gaara's eyes, the same look as when they had talked in the hospital, right after Gaara had tried to murder Rock Lee. He dodged another blow, a kick, which dug itself right under the fist.

Scrambling to his feet and nearly tripping in the process, all Naruto's brain could process was:

RUN

Survival instinct took over more than anything else. Naruto ran.

Blood pounded throughout his brain and he seemed to move faster than how he usually moved when scared. Maybe it was because he knew this person who was trying to kill him… Maybe it was because he'd never felt this sort of bloodlust before… Or maybe because the last time Gaara looked that way, was three years ago.

Whatever the reason was, Naruto ran like hell down the hospital hall and down the stairs, nearly falling over forward.

**_Oi, why are you running?_**

Naruto burst out of the hospital doors and nearly pounced on an elderly couple walking in. At the last minute, he weaved to the side and landed on all fours onto the sand before pushing off and heading left.

If he remembered, the exit to Suna was to the left.

Or was it right?

His mind was in a jumbled mess now.

**_Are you really scared of that boy? He's only under the influence of his past. Obviously, it's come back to him. It's caught up._**

It was all his mind could do to register what Kyuubi said and still run in fear. Left-right-left-left-right-left again-no, go back that was a dead end-left-right-right-right-deadend-turn-around-left-right-straight-right---

His brain just was a mushed mess.

Runrun…run…leap over those houses…! ….jump through that pipe…squeeze through…struggle…_it hurts_…_I know it does_…keep moving…moving…_I don't wanna die_…move…struggle…up on feet…run…trip…fall…wounds…_they hurt…it hurts…_run…_it stings…it really hurts…I know it does…_move…run…avoid that rock…avoid that mountain…leap…leap up on those slabs of rock…on that mountain…just…just…_I don't wanna die…_run…_I'm tired…_run…_I can't think…_move…_Just let me…go…_

_LET ME GO!_

He screamed.

Naruto screamed. His brain vaguely remembered the fact that it was he who was screaming.

Naruto was screaming. That scream, horrified, fearing…the one that brought chills up his spin and made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end, goosebumps appearing all over his body and his whole body stiffening, his eyes opened in wide fear… That scream was his.

And louder and louder it grew as Gaara, laughing…laughing…ever so manically, just grasped his leg.

Naruto screamed…yelled louder…howled as Gaara gripped harder and harder until he was sure that grip had reached to his very bones. It was then, that Gaara…

…

…snapped his shin in two.

There were no words to describe it, no words to fully capture Naruto's pain as it seared.

He was vaguely aware of tears. Whose tears? Tears that dripped.

His?

Yes…

…

…

…and no.

He was crying, and his voice was…

Naruto couldn't hear his own voice.

His voice was on another plane different from him, but he could still be vaguely aware of tears and the bitter taste of sale in his mouth as he stared up at Gaara.

Tears.

Gaara was crying too, before letting Naruto's leg go. Naruto didn't even yelp at the pain that seared. In fact, he no longer felt it. He looked up at Gaara with soulless eyes, just a doll…just something there.

Gaara was saying something, crying something as he sank to his knees near Naruto, desperate.

The Shukaku container's lips moved faster and the tears fled down his face faster and out of his eyes.

Naruto was vaguely aware of the taste and feeling of tears on his skin and tongue disappearing. Gaara's eyes widened, and he grasped Naruto by the shoulders. Naruto's vision blurred once before sharpening, before repeating that process.

Gaara's crying, desperate, pleading face, shaking him by the shoulders—Naruto wasn't too sure how hard Gaara grasped him, but he happened to glance down at the corners of his eyes. The clothing was badly ripped, soaked in blood, and wrinkled.

Naruto looked back into Gaara's petrified and shaking eyes, those eyes that kept on crying and mouthing words. Lips moved faster and faster until it was all a blur.

It was then…

Then.

It was then, then, at that time and place, near noon, near the entrance/exit of Sunagakure...that Uzumaki Naruto nearly died.

* * *

**A/N: My first attempt at the Shukaku sealing... Whatcha think?! I know, crazy eh? What was I thinking?! I mean, I had to do RESEARCH AND WORK HALF OF MY BRAIN OFF!**

**...am I doing alright?**

**I mean, on this story, this chapter?!**

**I'm thinking of using that Shukaku sealing part (edited or not) for a prologue on another story or something...**

**Hate it? Loathe it to hell and don't give a damn if anyone else thinks otherwise?**

**Love it? Love it, but hate it anyway?**

**Just plain don't know!**

**I don't care!**

PLEASE REVIEW!


	5. Curse of the OneTailed Tanuki

**Author's Note:** **OH MY GOD! It's a MIRACLE!** **I'M ALIVE! AND I UPDATED!**

* * *

**Music played while typing this up: **_Sadness and Sorrow by Naruto OST I_ **

* * *

**

**Curse of the One-tailed Tanuki**

**_By: biacebaolck_**

Breathing. Naruto stopped breathing.

Gaara just stared, through damn tears that wouldn't stop. Just stared, and shook like crazy.

He felt dizzy, looking at the blood, on his hands, on the ground. It kept on oozing out, oozing out… He just stared…and felt so cold all over. "Naruto…?" Even the name of the one who was now unconscious seemed to ring around him in echoes, shielding him away from the world.

Shielding?

Honestly?

Or was it just to keep him away from the world? And then, a grumbling of the clouds up above alerted Gaara that it was about to rain. He didn't move. Not even to instinctively look up. He couldn't. Frozen, he was. Then, the rain began to fall, slowly at first, and little at that, but gradually growing heavier and more and more until the sounds of the rain was the only thing he heard, his breathing lost in the pounding of the droplets.

The blood washed away, traveling to everywhere. Traveling throughout the streets of Suna. Blood. A river of blood.

No…

No…

…no…

He shivered, eyes widening and pupils dilating, and raised up his hands to his eyes, horror stricken as the blood ran down them. Blood…on his hands. On his hands…he had never been…so bloodied in his life. His sand had always done the killing for _mother_, except now; he knew it wasn't mother, but Shukaku.

How many times had he been fooled by that demon?

That tanuki? The one-tailed?

**_"The one who becomes the container of a demon is trash. YOU are trash."_**

The words echoed.

Solitary words all on their own. Yet, they still had an effect unlike anything else. His heart normally would've given pains of hurt and heartbreak, but… The rain stuck his hair his hair to his head, and he was vaguely aware of blood coming down his left eye as he saw slight trickles of red drops in his left eye, fall down his face, while his other, clear as day.

**_"You were born with a curse. You are the container of a demon, and YOU are a demon."_**

The sandy figure in Gaara's dreams as a child, reappeared again as the words echoed throughout his brain, or was it around him, all around him, cloaking him? Strangling him? He seemed more imposing than ever, his face just a sandy faceless mask.

And when Gaara found himself looking at his hands again, thinking he had turned back into a child, horrified was he to realize…that he was still there…the same size, the same age, the same demon container who had killed countless, heartlessly…cruelly…

**_"Your mother wished for you to curse this world…to kill all. And what do you do? You vow to protect!"_**

The Voice seemed harsh, unforgiving and like millions of knives pierced right through Gaara's heart to the other side, cutting off his limbs, one by one, and inflicting pain he should've felt…but couldn't, somehow… Somehow, couldn't feel at all.

**_"Protect THEM?! The ones who were the ones who just stood and watched as you suffered?" _**

It hurt…

Hurt…

Gaara was suddenly aware of feeling so heavy…so tired…he couldn't move…couldn't…

He fell forward, as in face first, but only landed on his right cheek, the blood now falling down his left eyelid and down to his right. He couldn't move. And it hurt. He wanted it to hurt, oh, how he forever wanted it to hurt badly…but the pain never came.

He felt like a hollow shell, that shell of sand armor he had always been hiding behind. Though he would say it were nothing, and his absolute and ultimate defense… It was just something he hid from the world…that monster he was.

He was always scared.

"**_I, who you have turned to in times of fear…I, who raised you, raised you and protected you… THIS is how you repay the debt that I was entrusted upon you?!" _**

Block it out…please…

He felt like…

…death?

He tasted blood in his mouth. It was the only thing there. No saliva, just BLOOD. All the things he couldn't tasted…out of all those things…

Gaara had never tasted blood before while he was younger…still that demon… Still…under the influence of Shukaku…

**_"I do not believe you are worthy…but, alas, I shall stay…" _**

**Stay?**

He didn't need the damn voice to stay. He wanted it to leave…maybe then he wouldn't…be…

So empty.

Empty.

He closed his eyes. He was awfully tired.

**_"I shall take the life of your friend."_**

NO!

Gaara's eyes snapped open to see a claw of sand extract itself from the heavily wet packed sand around them, bloodied, with…blood, old and new. No…no…nononononono….this couldn't…this couldn't be…happening…no…it couldn't…

* * *

_Where am I? _

Gaara looked around. This was **_NOTHING_** like the sewers where the Kyuubi had been sealed. Strange, he felt okay with that prospect now. He normally wouldn't just shed away from Naruto for a few days, thinking nothing, just empty, but then…his mind was equally empty, and the only thought he could extract was…

_Where is his soul?_

Soul?

He walked, he knew he walked, but he didn't know for how long.

Gaara walked farther and farther away. And little did he know…

…

…he walked farther and farther away from Naruto.

* * *

_Blood. _

_Everyone. _

_Dead. _

_Blood on his hands. _

_Horror stricken, he fell to his knees, horrified. _

_The Kyuubi's laughter resounded in his head. _

**_Thanks for the kill._**_ He laughed, howling amusedly. **I needed that blood. **_

_What? How did the Kyuubi get loose?_

**_I do hope you know that now you're going to lose your soul, right?_**

_He was about to ask, what exactly did Kyuubi mean before the whole thing began swirling. His vision, especially and as he stood up, he toppeled over again, with no balance. Everything was out of place. _

_Pain. Where did it come from? _

_It hurt so much Naruto even doubted that he hadn't felt it before. It seemed to last forever. When did it start? It hurt…it really hurt. _

**_On the night my little brother was murdered…_****_we were all at a safe den and we were all warm and we all had an amble supply of fresh warm water._**

_Kyuubi's tone seemed different somehow, remincising about something, that he was. And Naruto was in no state to answer, as the pain continued, seering from one temple to the next and in his forehead, deeply lodged, before travelling down his spine and aching through his chest, like something was trying to rip out his lungs…or maybe his heart…or maybe, something else…as he fell to his knees and somehow, the whole setting changed into pure white and he was just there, or nowhere, or anywhere, floating, his facing the sky, or what he thought should've been the sky as it was above him and nothing more, and he…and he…_

**_… and somewhere he was in terror. And you saw this fox's face, the tears behind his eyes, so close the pain, all these millenia and centuries later. _**

_It hurt. _

_Kami-sama, it hurt. _

_Tears welled up in his eyes, he could just barely feel them, his jaw tightened as so did his throat, his voice cracked as he whimpered as the pain shot right through, harsher, harder than ever. _

_It hurt. _

_They fell down, his tears did, and they fell down the sides of his face, trickling, or bursting out like an open tap. It hurt. But he couldn't scream. It wouldn't let him. Too much. Too much it hurt him. He wanted to…he wanted to… He squinted through the tears, something in his throat begging to be ripped out, and it hurt more and more, and suddenly he was suddenly aware of the dryness of his throat, it hurt, it pained when he swallowed or even moved his tongue, which moved of its own accord and— _

**_I'm not much of a curse, kit. I'm actually starting to grow fond of you, damn human._**

_Naruto didn't really know whether to feel grateful or not. He didn't really care. It just hurt so bad. Hurt so bad. _

**_I'm sorry you have to go through this, kit._**

_How was **SORRY** going to help anything?! _

_His mind screamed that in fury, in rage, and that only brought the pain more, brought more of the pain. He could barely see through his tears, and his tongue felt swollen, bitten, and mangled as he swallowed automatically. Kami-sama, it hurt._

'What darkness and rage there is in me, comes from witnessing these events in our world, from following, the suffering of others and seeing no one but me try to do something about it. I always fail. I hate it, damn it…I hate it.'_ Tears welled up further and fell._

_**Everybody sees it, everybody feels it, kit. **Kyuubi soothed, and Naruto swore the pain resided a little. **We all know that fury. In a sense, I saw myself as a medium for common outrage and anger back when I roamed free. They blamed everything bad that happened to them on me. Stupid creatures. **_

_'_Not stupid. Not stupid.'_ Naruto's mind seemed to resist. '_Never stupid. Ignorant, but never stupid.'

**_As you say, kit, but don't deny…_**

_'_It hurts…'

**_I know it does. Bear it a little while longer. _**

'It won't stop…IT WON'T STOP! DAMN IT!! GOD DAMN IT! IT HURTS! HURTS LIKE HELL!'_ He screamed finally, his voice erupting from his throat like a scream one would scream while coming down the world's fastest and tallest roller coaster. It just leapt out, never ending, never ceasing and his heart pounded furiously in such a way he imagined it easily popping out of his chest. His scream was nothing, no words, nothing. Just a large sound of agony and hurt and, and…_

**_Pain is an illusion. Realize that, brat!! WHY DON'T YOU REALISE THAT?!?! _**

_'_But it hurts so bad…_'_

**_It does NOT hurt so badly, mortal. It is all in your mind. Your MIND is why you're feeling this. The nerve sensors…everything… If they are all attacked at once, it feels like you're dying forever and will never stop dying a horrible death, eh? _**

'MAKE IT STOP!'

**_Brat. Listen to me. Outrage, it rises up in me, most of all, a surfeit of empathy. The victims, the victims…they are my incantation. I take their pain away once I kill them. Though many would consider this to…to be idiotic of a thought, this is true. Once they're dead, nothing troubles any longer. Nothing ever troubles the dead any more and they lie in eternal peace. _**

'I don't…want to…'

_Something erupted from inside his chest and pulled out, yanking him along with it, in its desperate pursuit of coming out. He screamed louder…Louder… Even LOUDER he screamed…even LoUdEr…and lOuDeR._

_It hurt. It really did._

**_Relax. It'll be over soon, kit. _**

'WHY DO YOU STILL CALL ME 'KIT'?! I'M NOT A FRICKIN' FOX!'

_To his surprise, the fox unearthed a healthy chuckle._

**_Looks like you're back, kiddo. Still got that fire in you, don't you? Means you're going to live…IF you can make it past those obstacles. _**

_Naruto was about to ask, what obstacles, what did he mean by that and why did he even say it when he was in pain and how dare he laugh at him because this pain was torture and he felt like he was going to die, no joking and—_

* * *

Why won't it end? 

**Why do you think? **

Why do you mock me?

**Because I know I can. **

How come I'm unfazed by this? How come I'm not screaming anymore? HOW COME?! HOW COME?!

**Because your tongue is numb and ruined. **

HOW COME I'm BREATHING?!

**Because it is a torture for you, to see yourself drown in worries, and delight for me, to see you begging for life you so clutch dearly. **

This is hopeless…I'm going to die.

**No, because Life won't ever release you into my grip. **

Are you Death?

**Are you alive? **

I dunno…

**Well, what do you think? **

Maybe? Hopefully? I…no—yes. I think I am.

**Well, then that answers that. **

Why? How come this never ends?

**What do you think? **

I'm wondering if I'm ever going to leave this place. This misery. This pain. Why does it not affect me as it did before?

**What else? Life is reclaiming you as her child. Stupid sister. **

Sister?

**Death and Life, brother and sister, son and father, daughter and mother, life comes first before anything and then death comes to reclaim what is now mine. You are not mine, though I long to see you struggle in vain and die. I want your soul, mortal. Give it to me. **

But you said I'm alive!

**True, you belong to Life, but I want you so badly. Your soul speaks of anguish, torture and horrors unimaginable. **

Why do you want me?

**I want that pain. I want your suffering. I want to see and feel more and more of it. It is lovely. **

Monster.

**I am not the one who hosts Kyuubi. **

You're the monster. NOT me. NEVER me. I…I…

**Hn, so be it. **

W…we…ll?! WHY WON'T—why the hell won't you take me now?! I am…I'm this…

**Reflect. **

I'M WHAT YOU MADE ME! I SWEAR! You created me before sending be into life, didn't you?! You CREATED ME!

**Oh? How so? **

WHY DO YOU MOCK ME?! You created me into this…this…hating machine.

**…**

Why do you stare at me? Why? YOU created me like this! Are you so glad that—

**It's not that. **

Oh, why not?! Don't you LOVE this reflection? The soul that reflects all that YOU'VE SUFFERED at the hands of your sister, your mother, your father, LIFE?! You…no matter how much you deny it, I know. You are my creator.

**So be it. I claim you once more. **

No. Let me go.

**And why not? Just a few ago, you were beggin— **

No. You already have my soul. YOU already HAD it from the beginning. You already HAD that pain from the start.Please, let me GO. LET ME GO. You don't need me anymore. YOU DON'T!

**I could release. And then, I know, you'll do anything; praying, waiting, screaming…and then I'll just embrace you once more. What is the point? I'll let you know, just because you were my first creation, the one I kept special until I wanted to release you with the others Life created and the ones that Fate and Destiny tainted and ruined…just because you're special, I'll let you know. **

What? …let me know what? …what…? …wh…a…?

**Your soul was going to be mine once more…but… Life is going to kill me for this, not that she can, because I'm Death and frankly, already dead, but… **

What is it? What is it? I…WHAT IS IT?!

**Impatient. Ah, well, that one with you is looking for your soul. Looking for you. You nearly died today, but count yourself lucky.**

Who was it? Gaara? Was it Gaara?

**Red hair and emerald eyes. I'm happy with how emotionless he'd become. Because of your influence, however, he's ruined forever. But I still love you. **

What? Pleas.e…please…pl…ease don't do that…please…

**I love you. And I'd kill again for you. I'll kill you one day and you'll be with me again. Because you're me. Mine. **

Please…just let me go already.

**Alright, but remember. Your soul already belongs to me. When Life wants you back, refuse. Because we have a deal, yes? I let you go this time, and then you come back. Or do you not keep your word? **

I keep my word! A shi…

**What is wrong? **

I…I can't remember what I was going to say. U…h…what's my name?

**You have strayed too far in this black realm. Your senses and self-being have disappeared. Quick, you must leave. **

Why are you helping me?

**…because you are my very own…how you say, flesh and blood. You are my own son. **

You're…my father?

**Yes and no. Please go. Now. I cannot bear to look at your stricken face. **

But…if you're my father, shouldn't I stay…?

**You should, yes, I want you to stay, but go now, quickly. You'll lose all who you were, and that isn't good. I want you back, come back, when you are ready, alright? **

…alright, father.

**Promise me you will come back, my son? **

Hai.

* * *

"Gaara?" Gaara's eyes blinked hesitantly open at the smiling face of Naruto. "Hey, welcome back to the realm of the living, man." He joked, laughing, and slapped Gaara's back. 

"Uzumaki…" Gaara growled.

"Eyah?"

"What happened?"

"Um…I dunno, I don't remember. Maybe you can? I mean, I have this…ew…it's…yowch, that'd gotta hurt when I got it…" Naruto peered closely at his leg, sitting right beside Gaara and turned back to look at his friend. "…do you know what happened?"

Gaara searched deep in his brain, but found he couldn't really remember. "It's all just a blur," He admitted finally. "…all white, I guess."

"Why are we all wet?" Naruto asked, and on impulse, he sneezed.

"Let's go, you're going to catch a cold." Gaara stood up, but his legs quaked underneath him and he fell back down onto the muddy-like sand.

"Haha!" He laughed, but he got up, putting most of his weight on the leg without any injuries and helped Gaara up, placing his arm around Gaara's back and Gaara's arm around the back of his neck and awkardly, they hobbledforward, Naruto limping slightly and Gaara taking slow, unsure steps. "What do you suppose happened?"

"Something that must have been traumatic. Maybe that's why we don't remember." Gaara said, after a few seconds of silence, as the sky cleared of grey clouds above them and with white fluffy cloads, the sun shone down on them and birds chirped, flying away from their shelters. "We have birds in Suna?"

"…they're cool!" Naruto grinned. "C'mon! Race you—"

He fell over in the muddy sand, characteristically dragging down a yelping Gaara with him. And as they landed with a splash, stomach first, Naruto on bottom and Gaara's stomach on his back, Gaara curled his hands into fists and his voice could be heard from all around as well as Naruto's.

"Sorry about that, Gaara! I forgot about—"

"**_UZUMAKI_**!"

"WACK! I **_said_** sorry!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Shukaku, was awake and smiled to himself in where he was sealed. 

His curse had already begun to enfold.

_**Enjoy your time while it lasts, human brat. You won't get anything like this in the future.** _

Luckily, Gaara couldn't hear. Maybe because he couldn't, or maybe because he wouldn't, but this saved him a lot of worry that day, when they were picked up by an angry Temari and a flustered Kankuro. Oh, and Temari's lecture lasted about before dinnertime, which was, about, 3 hours.

Laughing, and straight out of the hospital after their wounds were cleaned (mostly Naruto's) and the blood washed away and their wounds bandaged, Naruto gave the Sand siblings something worth remembering.

…after all, you'll never come back to a time when you were truly happy.

* * *

**Author's Note: AMAZING!**

**I've come back to life!**

...**I'm joking, I'm joking. No need to waste food by throwing perfectly good tomatoes and apples at me. Apples are HARD. But they're good as a snack or as apple juice. Yummy.**

**No, I'm not having anything apple, but I just finished blueberry yogurt. Wow, that was random.**

**I dunno when the next update is. After all, here are the points I've learned to far:**

**1) **I suck like crazy at humour  
**2) **Whatever humour I try to dish out is usually pointless, pathetic and stupid, and only VAGUELY funny.  
**3) **I suck at romance, but I'm around average, so I guess that's okay. Or maybe I'm a little higher? (happy if this is true) I always wanted to be above average, even if it was only by a little.  
**4) **Angst is not my thing, because I have never done it before and frankly, I think I suck at this.  
**5) **HORROR is most definately a no-no, because I'm too much of a chicken and too sucky at this to even borther posting up. I suck at scaring people, let's leave it at that.  
**6) **I'm good at character development. At least, that's what I think. I dunno. What do you think?

**Review and I MAY update if I'm lucky enough to get an inspiration. Thanks to all the ones who reviewed:**

Yukiofthesnow **(I apologize beforehand if the underscores do not show up!)**; NarutoFAN; xcloudx; Gaa-Chan; lin; Kiseki no Tenshi; Gaara14; Ripuku; Rebellia; and, K-Cri!

**Thanks a bunch and until next time, Sayonara!**


	6. Vengeance

**Author's Note: So sorry! I posted this up before but noticed that the DOCUMENTS thingy _ERASED_ PART OF THE FIC! I had to take it down for editting and...GAWD. DX**

**As you all might've noticed, the title of this ficlet changed from Gaara to Jinchuuriki, because, well, honestly, I think this story is veering towards NARUTO'S feelings as well, doncha think? Summary has changed, well, because I can't make up my mind.**

**Can't believe I finally got off my lazy butt to type this. Well, not lazy. More like dead. I've got theory (I AM DEAD) and I've got swimming, and it takes nearly up to midnight to finish that theory. Maybe I shouldn't keep putting it off...hrm...**

**I hope I didn't make anyone OOC. Kankuro might've been at some point. XD Can't help it. Now I'm hooked on that couple involving him and (SPOILERS).**

* * *

**Vengeance**  
**_By: biacebaolck_**

_Let me slaughter,_

_Let me maim,_

_Let me shatter,_

_Fast it came,_

_Faster and faster,_

_Until pain doth seared,_

_Through my body, my being,_

_Injured yet feared._

_Let me kill,_

_Let me bleed,_

_Let me murder,_

_Let me see,_

_Open my eyes,_

_To the light of truth,_

_What I was denied,_

_In light of truth,_

_Let me know,_

_What I was denied,_

_Let me know._

_My soul is yours,_

_Just let me see,_

_Why I seem to cry,_

_Every night, begging for mercy._

_I'm crying,_

_Why, help me, why,_

_Help this soul understand,_

_For in the end,_

_We are all alone,_

_And no one can help us,_

_When only we ourselves can._

_Teach me,_

_Understand me,_

_Trust me,_

_Love me,_

_And I swear_

_**I will pay you back.**_

* * *

"Thanks for lending me your bed, Gaara!" Naruto grinned, clad in the slightly larger sized pajamas of Kankuro that Temari had let him wear, dull green, with wonder, in the desert, anything of bright color usually faded in the powerful sun. He leapt upon the bed and it sprung up on him, delighting him with its spring full bounciness and he bounced on it, a child's happiness on his face. "This is my first sleepover! SUGOI! What do you do at sleepovers, Gaara?" 

"I don't sleep." Was what Gaara said simply. "So I don't _have_ sleepovers."

"Aw, come on, Gaara! Don't be like that!"

"..." Gaara folded his arms and leaned against the wall, yet his eyes never left Naruto as the boy stood up on the bed and started bouncing around.

"Wheeeee! This is so fuuun! Wheeeeee! This is greeeeeaaaat!" Suddenly, Naruto jumped off the bed. "OH CRA--!" He landed face first on the floor. "-P..." His feet finally fell down after him. "MW." Came the muffled 'ow'.

"...Go to bed." Gaara ordered, slightly cross. Naruto was getting on his nerves. And it didn't help that the blond now had a five-pound cast on his leg and was jumping up around like a flea. "You'll only hurt yourself more, and I have no time as Kazekage to become your guardian and make sure you don't kill yourself."

"But GAARA!" Naruto lifted his face up and leapt back onto the bed, bouncing as he sat there, the bed springs getting used to a body upon them. "C'mon! Your bed is AWESOME! Jump on it with me!"

Gaara twitched.

"C'mon Gaara it's FUN!" He grinned, as though to emphasize the point that Gaara was already oh-so-tired of hearing.

"No, I don't think so." Gaara snapped, and walked to the door. "If you'll excuse me, I've got to go back to work. I've neglected that paperwork for far too long by wasting enough time with you."

"PAPERWORK!" Naruto laughed and fell backwards fully on the bed, yanking off his headband and letting his hair fall out over the bed covers. "HA! When **I'm** Hokage, I'll get someone else to do it! Someone smart! Maybe Iruka-sensei-? NAH! Iruka-sensei would've have time to treat me to ramen! I know! Sakura-chyan's smart! I'll ask--"

"Naruto," Gaara ground out at the doorway, half turned to glare at the blond. "Go. To. Bed." It was an effort not to Sabaku Kyuu the ninja right here and right now to end this nonsense.

"Nah! I think I'll come with you." Naruto swung both his legs on the bed and jumped on it, creating enough energy to leap forward off the bed, right next to Gaara. "Lead the way, my friend!!" He grinned, hands up in a 'banzai'.

Gaara grumbled many annoyances, and they made their way down the stairs.

"Gaara, where are you goin--" Temari asked from her room doorway, walking towards the stair balcony railing, before noticing the other boy. "Oh, Uzumaki-ku--"

"NARUTO!" Said blond corrected.

"_Right._ Naruto-kun. Gaara. Where are you two going at--?"

"What's up?" Kankuro asked, carrying his puppet, like always, wrapped behind his back. "I'm so tired I'm ready to fall asleep dead on my feet!" He grinned, trying to get a laugh.

Only Naruto offered it, guffawing so loudly that suddenly, all three sand siblings worried about the lack of oxygen.

"Kankuro! This is not the time!" Temari snapped. "All three of you! GO TO BED!"

"Not a problem." Kankuro murmured, yawning. "Just get out of my way, let me have oh, about five minutes in the bathroom to relieve myself, a few seconds to put on my pajama--" He stopped. "Oi, brat! Why are you wearing-?!"

"I let him." Temari glared, as if daring Kankuro to ridicule what she did. "What were you saying?"

Kankuro stared tired, before saying, swaying on his feet, eyes half closed, "I'm sleepy and I'm going to bed. Night all, you too, _bozu_." He brushed past Gaara and Naruto.

"HEY! I'm _NOT_ A **_SQUIRT_**, dattebayo!"

"You sure act like one. Now let me sleep..._PLEASE_." Kankuro begged, opening his bedroom door and revealing a puppet master's haven, pieces, spare parts and tools scattered across the floor, along with diagrams and structural upgrades for his puppets. It was a wonder Kankuro managed to guide himself through the room without stepping barefoot on something that could injure him. He leaned the bundle against the wall before wandering out and into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

"I _really,_ really, don't get your bro." Naruto complained to Gaara. "I mean, why wear black in the desert?! I mean, it's as hot as it is at daytime as at night, right, right?"

"Not all the time," Gaara replied, voice monotone. "Sometimes the night is as cold as winter in Konoha."

"Oo, that's cold." Naruto commented.

"Other times, it's alright. One gets used to it." Gaara shrugged uncaringly, before he made his way down the stairs. The sounds of a shower being turned on could be heard from the bathroom.

"Damn brother of mine is going to use up all the hot water!" Temari grumbled, before folding her arms and looking at Naruto. "Look, Naruto, I appreciate all you've done and especially how you taught us what kind of things you can do during a practice battle, but, seriously, just go to bed and let us normal people sleep." The shower turned off abruptly and thumps could be heard, cutting her off, so they didn't hear the rest. So she said it again, "Let us normal people sleep."

At the word 'normal', a snort could be heard from behind the doorway.

"Oh, SHUT UP, KANKURO!" Temari yelled at the door.

"I didn't say anything!" Kankuro pleaded innocent as he came out, wiping his hair dry with a towel, the make-up having already been washed from his face and he wore only his pants. "I'm tired, just let me--"

"Why don't I send you to sleep for real?" Gaara snapped, having already slipped on his _zori_ sandals. "Would you like that also, Uzumaki?!"

"Hey, hey, HEY!" Naruto yelped, running down the stairs so fast it was a miracle in that cast and that the boy hadn't fallen over and injured himself. "I didn't do anything! That's not fair and-! That's not very nice to say that to your best friend, you know!"

"You're not my best friend." Gaara said bluntly, snapping almost immediately. "You're only an..." He paused, trying to find a word. Ally? Advisor?

"What am I? Just someone who helped you out before?" Naruto asked angrily with a sudden change of attitude. Gaara looked up surprised as Naruto glared at him, grabbing his own _zori_ sandals and brushing past the Kazekage angrily, hop slipping on one as his other was still in the cast, slipping the other in his kunai pouch. "Teme." He murmured, angrily stomping off. "I thought we were friends! You're just as much of a bastard as Sasuke-teme was!"

Gaara could only stare, dumbfounded.

"Great." He heard Temari's groan, before she sighed and talked to him, tried to get him to understand.

"Gaara, you're anti-social. Please, please, _please_, understand that you're...well, different. Don't rub it in other people's faces, all right? Good night, Gaara. Apologize to Naruto-kun tomorrow, all right? I'm sure he'll forgive you. Night."

She made it to the washroom, with her pajamas and closed the door, locking it with a click.

Gaara just continued staring dumbly and mutely at the doorway, the open door fluttering open and close against the strong breeze of wind that teased him, deceived him and made him wonder.

Why was he feeling so miserable and upset?

* * *

The next day, Naruto had left Sunagakure...at one in the morning. One of the ninja on post recalled seeing a sleepy Uzumaki Naruto wave goodbye to him, without a backwards glance, each pace strong and steadfast. 

Now, Kazekage Gaara wondered what happened.

He knew Naruto wasn't one to snap. He was always happy-go-lucky, an idiot miracle, a miracle that it wasn't that he was killed on the spot for his complete idiotic character.

A Konoha ninja who always smiled and never gave up. One who knew the feeling of loneliness, but never showed it, because he knew he wasn't alone.

Gaara drummed his fingers on the table, reminiscing about yesterday night.

Most in particular, his thoughts were upon Temari's words.

_"Gaara, you're anti-social."_

Anti-social?

Well, that was certainly the case since he never actually **_wanted_ **to get to know anyone in Suna before. And he still didn't. He was like that. He preferred to keep his business to only a few restricted people.

_"Please, please, _**_please_**_, understand that you're...well, different."_

Different? How so? The container of Shukaku?! No, that also sort of applied to Naruto, the container of Kyuubi. Different as in having a different outlook and looking so much like a raccoon with those rings around his eyes? Gaara didn't think that was the case.

Kazekage, maybe? Maybe she was talking about the rank of a ninja? Yes, it seemed to fit...but nearly not as well. Somehow, Gaara didn't think that was what Temari meant when she said that.

_"Don't rub it in other people's faces, all right?"_

Gaara nearly face-faulted, but years of emotionless facade on his self had paid off. Now the Kazekage theory really _didn't_ make sense. It wasn't what Temari was talking about.

After all, he didn't rub his Kazekage rank in others' faces!

He become Kazekage because he wanted to protect this village, and hopefully become more like--

Hand clenched his pen, with such a grip he was surprised it didn't snap and splatter ink all over his desk, the towering and fearsome figure of paperwork, and his clothing and maybe his face and hair and hands.

"...Naruto." Gaara sighed, and dropped the pen, splashing a little ink on his desk, but his mind was elsewhere.

He folded his arms, slightly allowing a frown to adorn his features as well as an annoyed look in his eyes.

Damn it, he didn't understand. He really didn't understand.

_"Apologize to Naruto-kun tomorrow, all right? I'm sure he'll forgive you."_

"If you were so sure, Temari," he muttered, glaring darkly at the door. "Why did he leave so early?!"

* * *

"Naruto-kun _is_ a shinobi, Gaara." Temari answered his unanswered question later at home through woman's intuition. "And he _does _have a duty as a Konoha-nin to go back and help his Hokage." 

"Plus," Kankuro added, his mouth stuff with rice. Temari shot him a glare, so with great difficulty, he swallowed, thumping his chest to get it all down, before gasping for air and continuing. "He's working towards the goal to become Rokudaime now, isn't he? He can't afford to slack off now. Not with you as a Kazekage, a Kage before him. Though I'm not so sure he wants to be one now..." Kankuro added.

"Kankuro!" Temari hissed.

"What?!" He looked defiantly back at her. "I'm just telling my opinion and the truth! Speech is free, y'know!"

"But _you_ should know when to keep your big fat mouth shut, moron!"

"If Gaara doesn't realize this now, who's going to tell him in the future?!" Kankuro shot back. "We're not always going to be here for him, realize that, Temari! And Gaara," He turned towards his younger brother, leaving a fuming, but quiet Temari to her dinner. Instead of feeling compassionate for him, Kankuro's eyes were steely and stern. Frankly, that got the point across a lot better. "Gaara, just because Naruto left doesn't mean he hates you for life. Grow a backbone. Where did that fearless shinobi in you go?! I'll take of your duties tomorrow, just go to Konoha and apologize."

"..." Gaara thought about it, but still spoke, his eyes unnerving, but Kankuro didn't let that show. "You _do_ realize the citizens of Konoha would worry completely if the Kazekage suddenly just came without afore mentioned business, escorts and--"

"So use a genjutsu!" Temari counteracted. "Kankuro's right. For once." She added darkly and Kankuro shot her a twitching look. Ignoring him, she continued. "Gaara, you _have_ to learn how to apologize to people. You've never had to in your entire life. That's why you should right now. If you don't learn now, you'll never learn!"

Gaara lost his temper. "What do you know about _me?! What do you know about _**_NARUTO?!_**_"_ He shouted, getting up so quickly his chair squeaked and his palms slamming the table, jostling it. On impulse, Temari and Kankuro had already taken the plates onto their own hands. Now, they placed them calmly back on. "WHY DO I NEED TO APOLOGIZE WHEN THERE'S _NOTHING_ I NEED TO APOLOGIZE _FOR?!"_ He bristled at them. "AND WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TWO SO BLOODY DAMN CALM?!" He roared.

"Because, this is one of the first few times you've let your emotions cloud your judgment." Temari said, helping herself to some bok choy.

"You're human, Gaara. And that's what makes you imperfect, and NOT a shinobi tool. That's good...and that's not so good at the same time. You're being clouded by a sin: Pride. There are seven sins of humans that NO ONE can ever NOT commit, and _no_, they don't include the shinobi ones." Kankuro sighed, scratching his head.

Gaara stared mutely at him, but he refused to back down with his glare.

"Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride." Kankuro counted on his fingers. "They are man-kind's downfall in all cases of sin. Of course, there are still the seven holy virtues."

"Seven holy virtues?"

"I'll tell you if you sit down and enjoy this family meal with us, Gaara." Temari said, swallowing.

Gaara stood for a few seconds before seating himself down. But he didn't touch any of the food. "Tell me." he ordered, like a spoilt little brat. Kankuro and Temari shared a smile.

"Each of the seven deadly sins has an opposite among the corresponding seven holy virtues, sometimes also referred to as the **_contrary virtues_**. In parallel order to the sins they oppose, the seven holy virtues are chastity--purity, basically--, abstinence--self-control--, liberality--will, generosity, diligence--ethics--, patience, kindness and humility." She explained.

"...What do the seven sins mean?" Gaara asked finally, after digesting the information. Normally, if he was any other person, he's be saying, 'huh?' but then again, only Naruto would say something like--

Damn.

"Lust, or, as they say in latin, Luxuria, is usually thought of as involving obsessive or excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature," Temari shrugged.

"Isn't lust and love basically the same thing?"

"**_However_**, lust and love are two different things; while a genuine, selfless love can represent the highest degree of development and feeling of community with others in a human relationship, Lust can be described as the excessive desire for sexual release." Temari rolled her eyes, as Gaara looked doubtful. "Naruto's willing to help others is a genuine and selfless love. Or maybe it's because he can't stand to see them in suffering. Typical hero." But she smiled was saying it.

"What about the others?" Gaara dearly wanted to get this over with and just know the sins so he could avoid them and his siblings wouldn't bother him about it anymore.

"Too much to explain." Kankuro groaned, dropping his chopsticks with a loud clatter on the table.

"Kankuro!" Temari hissed.

"But it _is_! If you want to look up the seven deadly sins so much, tell you what, I've a contact in the city. They've the latest computer technology--"

"Computer? What's that?"

"Of COURSE he wouldn't know what a computer is, you dumbass!" Temari quipped angrily.

"Look in up the dictionary, Gaara. And look up the all the seven sins if you want. It'll give the basis of it, but you can go to an encyclopedia if you're that daring. But do the dishes before you leave."

"Why?" Gaara snapped.

Kankuro raised an eyebrow. "I thought that was clear." He smiled. "Because we told you what you wanted to know, we get equal in exchange. Though, I wouldn't call it equal, but, hey, you're older bro's feeling nice today."

Temari snorted. "I'm leaving, because either way, this family dinner talk somehow turned into a guy talk." She left the table, grabbing her fan on the way out. "I'm going on a mission to Konoha tomorrow, Gaara, just so you know." She left, snapping the door behind her.

"Put it this way," Kankuro grinned a toothy one as he got up. "Life's full of surprises. It's just best to prepare yourself early. Maybe then you'll be able to understand, Gaara, but listen to me." He placed a hand on Gaara's shoulder. "Whatever you think is right...do it because you _know_ it's right and you _want_ it with all your heart to be followed. Not just because you think it's a requirement."

"Get your dirty hands off me." Gaara nearly shouted, fuming with anger for some unknown reason.

"Touchy." Kankuro sighed. "Look, Gaara, you're angry because it's the truth. If you're that easy to anger, I think you'll be dying pretty quickly out there."

And he left, leaving Gaara to his own thoughts.

Gaara only sat for a minute or so, staring at his clenched hands grabbing his pants material. "Disgusting." He growled out, getting up, and preparing to wash the dishes. "I'm lowered to filth."

_Pride._

Will pride be your downfall, Gaara? Because it's already lost you a dear friend...

* * *

"Damn him..." Naruto mentioned again and again during the missions he was given, when he was finished and before. "Damn him. Damn. DAMN him!" 

"Naruto?" Sakura was genuinely worried for her teammate. "Are you alri--"?

"Would **_YOU_ **be alright if your best friend upped and left to go to Orochimaru and you went back to get him and he beat you to a bloody crap and then THREE years later, you're back, and then your OTHER best friend goes and acts like a snobby UCHIHA SASUKE all over again?!" Naruto yelled at her. "_NO_**_ I don' t think I'm alright!_**_"_

Sakura stared startled at him. "I...I..."

"Sorry, Sakura." Naruto mumbled to his feet. "But...I...I...gotta go. This is a rough time for me...okay? I'm sorry, but could we not take missions together? It really hurts without Sasuke-teme." He brushed past her and left.

It took nearly half an hour for a stunned Sakura to regain her senses and five hours later to realize he hadn't added the '-chan'.

* * *

"So Gaara's not coming with us?" Temari asked as she heaved her fan on her back. 

"Nope." Kankuro shook her head. "Here, you need the poison right?" He handed her the bottle.

She looked at it, inspecting it. "What's this? I never asked for metal!" She started to open it, but he closed his hand over hers.

"Easy there, Temari. Don't expose it to air. It's Thallium."

She paled. "Th-that's...wow." She stared at it. "So this is the infamous poison resembling tin but discolors when exposed to air...?"

"Yeah. You wouldn't believe how much authority I had to push in those peoples' faces to get that. Be grateful." He sipped his soda, pointing at the see-through glass bottle. "It's highly toxic, used in rat poisons and insecticides. I had a hard time getting it, you know, because it might also cause cancer; carcinogen. The use has been either cut back or eliminated. Loads of black market pricing for this little baby."

"Thanks." She grinned.

"No prob." He waved her goodbye. "Just bring me back a souvenir."

"What do you want?"

"I dunno..." Was it her imagination, or did he turn pink. "...Erm...remember the bowl-cut hair jounin?"

"What about that freak?" Temari face faulted. Kankuro muttered something inaudible. She had to lean in to hear correctly. "Something about...'chakra strings'...weapons mistress?" A know-it-all grin sprouted on her face. "Who'd have thought?! You're in LOVE aren't you? You've a crush on..." She thought back to any weapons mistress's she might've known. "...Who is it?"

"You'd laugh at me. I'm not telling." Kankuro left her.

"Oh, come on, fuzz brain!" She yelled after him. "I can't remember THAT far back! Who is it?" When he didn't answer, she yelled, "FINE! Be that way! I'll use it to murder whoever she is one day!"

"You wouldn't DARE!" Kankuro glowered. "It's been used in murders and its nicknames are 'The Poisoner's Poison' and 'Inheritance Powder' alongside arsenic! It's DEADLY! Damn it, if you're going to use it to hurt her, I'll take it away from you!"

"No. It's MINE." Temari folded her arms and stuck out her tongue at him.

"Fine." He snapped. "Just stop teasing me. You'll find her if you find the bowl-cut hair freak's jounin sensei."

"Geez..." Temari sighed to herself when Kankuro left. "...He didn't have to put up so much of a resistance. I was only teasing him..._spoilsport._" She stared up concerned at her little brother's window. "Geez, Gaara..." Shaking her head and heaving a heavier sigh, Temari turned and left.

A figure moved into sight of the window and watched her leave, with emerald eyes, and a mouth whispering, "_Wrath..._is it, wrath? That made you angry, Uzumaki Naruto? Or was it my pride?"

There was no answer. Not that he expected there to be one.

He turned and left his window.

Somewhere a Shukaku reminisced about the lovely times he'd have splitting up relationships, friendships and all those things that those pathetic humans kept dear and loyal to their hearts. _"**Sickening."**_ He spat_. "**Why do they create their own downfalls? At least,**_**"** He mused, **"_Splitting this friendship will be fun. If I'm right, this little...hrm...a death of that Kyuubi brat will soon give me power over this one."_ **

* * *

"Iruka-sensei..." The teacher looked up and was almost shocked to see his former student in tears. Immediately, he was by the boy's side. 

"Are you alright, Naruto? What's wrong?"

"...What do you do, when you've gotten angry at someone when they really didn't anything?"

Iruka willed his heartbeat to still to its normal regime, and wished to calm down. "...It's...I believe, called mood swings. It means you're going through puberty. Friendships can break because of these, but sometimes, it's the strain that breaks you down."

The boy stayed quiet, and just walked forward to a student's desk, right in front of Iruka-sensei's desk. He pulled out a chair from the desk and sat down, hands folded as he stared blankly into space.

"Iruka-sensei...how do I apologize?" Naruto asked miserably. "I can't sleep because I feel bad about it..."

"I can see that." Iruka hesitated, glancing at the rings under Naruto's eyes. "Tell you what, I'll treat you to ramen and we'll talk about it, alright? And then we'll try to find a solution to it."

"Thanks, Iruka-sensei." Naruto offered a sad smile. "I knew I could count on you."

Iruka smiled, but he didn't return any happiness. Inside, he felt just as miserable as Naruto. Because he knew he couldn't help. One look and one glance told it all. This was something that Naruto had to figure out on his own. Because everything and anything he could've said to his former student wouldn't have helped.

In life, it is true, that the road is not taken by helping no one but you, but, the road of life is taken with hardships one must face on their own, and the paths and obstacles they face is decided upon.

"Sensei?" Iruka snapped out of his daze. "You coming?" Naruto didn't really look as sad as before, but a bit of confusion in them.

"Ah, hai." Iruka sorted through the reports and folders on his desk, before finding a red binder and flipping through the pages, opening it up and removing a paper with grades.

"Ano...Iruka-sensei...I don't know why, Iruka-sensei, but somehow, I think something's going to happen."

"What do you think is going to happen?" Iruka asked, smiling, as he played along, exiting the room. "I'll meet you at Ichiraku, Naruto. I just need to clear things up with Midori-sensei, okay?" He didn't wait for a reply, he quickly ran off.

"I think..." Naruto replied, his eyes clouding over before resorting to a sharp, deadly and demonic red. **"_I'm up for some Shukaku on a stick_**" He grinned menacingly, baring fangs at the sun, as he pushed off the ground and raced off, a blur.

A lust for blood, they say, is all it can take for a massacre.

Konoha's second Kyuubi massacre was about to begin at the same time as Suna's first.

* * *

**A\N: ZOMGZOMGZOMGZOMGZMFG! Naruto's crazy! (gasp) That can't be! Kyuubi's taken over! (gasp!) And he's going to Suna?! Oh noes, Gaara, runz for yours life! DX Naruto! Snap out of it!**

**What will happen?!**

**Hrm, maybe reviews will help me get inspirations...HINTHINT. What do you think will happen? Give me your thoughts on this and then inspiration will come faster! Thank-you! XD**

**EDIT: If you're wondering about what happened to Naruto's cast on his leg, you'll find out next chapter!**


	7. Alone From the Start

**Author's Note:** **I shouldn't have put that last cliff-hanger there.** **Didn't even mention the massacre in this chapter (sweatdrop).** **Okay, pretend that people got hurt bad and in the end, had no idea how the hell they got hurt.** **Sorry this took so long.** **It's VEEEERRY long as an apology.**

**I can't write SHIT when I suck like hell in the box of writer's block. Plus, I'm really getting ticked off with Window's Word and compatibility. I had to FRICKIN' edit EVERYTHING in google writely and download it...AGAIN. Took me an hour, tops. I hate life.  
**

**I'm a gonna end this soon…**

…**because I've finished reading all about Naruto II, now all that's left is the Shippuden eppies, bu-ut…**

**N'way, no Gaara being taken away.** **Nothing will be following Naruto II's plotline, because I say so.** **And because I'm losing interest in NARUTO.** …**ZOMG!** **NO WAYS!** **AUUUUUUUUURGGH!**

…**must…watch…NARUTO SHIPPUDEN AND REGAIN LOVE FOR ANIME AND MANGA!** **Must…be Narutard again!** …**help.**

* * *

**HELP ME BY REVIEWING.****T-T**

* * *

**WARNING: ** **Unbeta-ed for your torture. Un-re-read for your better torture. If something looks wrong, try to guess what is wrong with it and keep it to your self, m'kay? Thanks. Oh, yes, the beginning info is crap I made up for torture. Deal with it, un. (Mah tribute to Deidara. Poor Dei...his art is and is STILL so unappreciated.)**

* * *

**Alone From the Start**

_**By: biacebaolck**_

_Golden eyes, as piercing as an eagles, gazed sharply up at the other._ _Scarlet eyes, though, their brilliant hue of red could not be seen as they were closed in silent thoughts of the unknown._ _The silence that lingered between them only contained that of the habitual coughs, sneezes and normal entities one would have._ _But what actually brought the silence in the first place…was the finishing._

_It was the endgame, time to end the game now, if you please._

_The silence didn't bother the two at all._ _After all, they had been raised for nearly 200 years in complete black, stumbling newborns, injected with the curse and blessing of becoming the next tailed Bijuu._ _For each Bijuu that died in the line, they left behind a part of them in the demon world…a…'safety-just-in-case', because, being a Bijuu was the title that all demon strived for._

_Centuries had been lost to tell about how many assassinations, how many slaughter of any species kind, how many a death had to be obtained before the title would be theirs._ _Demons had been fighting since the day they had been created._ _A natural honed instinct, arrogance, power…those things fueled their drive to become the next Bijuu._

_Of course, no Bijuu was more hunted and killed by demon, human or halfa alike than the Nine-Tailed Fox himself._ _The most powerful, and automatic king of all Bijuu._ _But, to become the King of Bijuu and all demon kind, the current one must be killed by their claw and their claws alone._

_For half a millennia, while he had been growing up, he never saw reason why his power was so greatly desired._ _Now, millennium passing of many a time, he understood._ _If a Bijuu was killed by another, or by a demon or human, the Bijuu's power would add to the one who killed him or her._ _Though, it was more likely both parties would die if the battle of their lifetime came, and in time, even after their century long death, the reincarnation would kick in._

"_**What…are you doing?"**_ _Finally, raspy and a slight shriek rose through the air, shaking all matter._

_The scarlet eyes looked back up at him, annoyed, before, rolling his eyes._ _The more tails you had…it didn't mean at all that you were older…or…necessarily wiser._ "_**Quiet.**_" _His voice was regal, and struck fear to even the Bijuu before him, yet Shukaku did not let that show to his sire._ "_**I'm thinking, you insolent old man."**_

_Shukaku was just tempted to kill Kyuubi now and then._ _After all, they were in their less monstrous demon forms, an equivalent to what humans would call 'humans' (The greatest insult a demon could get) upon looking at them, but what made the Bijuu so different was that they still retained at least more than half of their power in this form, and yet a lot less control over it._ _Such was price of power._

_One tailed, and, not very well known for his temper, Shukaku had silenced those who opposed his being Bijuu with his unstoppable Fuuton speciality._ _Shinobi had spent countless ages trying to discover Bijuu secrets…to their power, and for some reason, a certain line had an affinity with the elements used in demonic fights._

_All shinobi kind, whether half, or whole, all were born from the line of Shian, the first actual shinobi of his kind._ _True, his comrades were some better ninja when it came to weapons, but Shian developed a whole method of his own…a whole method…of creating._

_Despite the fact that humans were no lesser scum than the ants of the earth, miniscule, petite and pathetic enough to be washed away by a mouthful of water, Shian was one of those humans that the Bijuu respected._ _Rest assured, if another him came up, no one would be safe._ _For you know…it is harder to kill someone if they're smaller than you, know the same things that you do, have enough battle experience and…also…_

…_if they're completely crazy._

_Shian had died laughing like a maniac in his own house._

…_Bijuu couldn't stand those who were not in right of mind._ _It annoyed all else and disrupted all order._ _Each crazed individual that somehow managed to find a Bijuu or demon and challenge it, slaughtering it or getting killed by it, no matter…yet they were always the ones that you'd expect be'd attacked as soon as they entered the realm or demonic territory._ _Demon instinct is like that, very strong, and rarely ever wrong._

_These ones were all the rage because within time, their own powers wouldn't be able to be controlled by their cracked mind, and they would destroy themselves, leaving power where they died._ _Demonic power depending on their nature, and, oh, what a scrumptious meal most of it made before it got exorcised and purified by priests and the like._

"_**I have been waiting for far too long to get what you assure me is what I want, you foolish child."**_

"_**Call me a child again and I shall snap your neck, you pathetic excuse for a water-bellied human!"**_ _At that remark, Shukaku's claws clenched tightly and his fangs grit, but he tried to held back the killer intent that still easily came through._ _Shukaku had never been a good demon at self-control, anyway._ _Kyuubi let out a smirk and it was all the One-Tailed could do not to go psycho on his host vessel and kill Kyuubi's own._ "_**What's the matter, old man?**__**Scared?"**_

"_**Oh, I don't know."**_ _Now, Shukaku smiled and Kyuubi registered a look of confusion, before his regal façade slid back on his face._

"_**What do you mean?**__**Tell me now before I kill you and offer your title to Sanbi."**_

"_**Sanbi?!**__**The weakest of us all?!**__**You…you wouldn't dare-!"**_

"_**I would.**__**And I can."**_

_Shukaku stopped a howl._ _Yes, it was true._ _No one was with greater power and influence than the Kyuubi no Kitsune himself._ _The more tails you had, the more powerful you could become._ _And, besides._ _Being forced into a human __CHILD__was pure insult._ _Their own powers got leeched and for the greater insult, only a quarter of their chakra was ever used in the Jinchuuriki's life time, that say, if the human's body accepted another's soul into it._

_Two souls in one body._ _Of course, the body could be mentally unstable, resulting in short term insanity as Shukaku had managed with Gaara, but there was also another thing._ _The body could reject one of the souls._ _And most likely it'd be the original one._ _Demonic souls, especially those of Bijuu—no body ever refused that, but it was possible._ _Possible…with a 98 percentage rate that the body would accept the Bijuu soul instead of its own._

"_**Jinchuuriki…"**__Shukaku muttered, his eyes lowering and his head bowing in utter shame, resolving not to kill the younger until he had the chance._ "…_**what a name."**_ _Kyuubi did not speak, as his eyes were once again closed, but a sneer made it through his face before it vanished entirely._ _Shukaku could still not shake the fear from himself._

"_**What…"**__He finally breathed._ "…_**do you think they're doing?"**_ _Shukaku stared._ _How could he not?_ _The great Bijuu king was asking HIM, __**HIM**__, the lowliest of all tailed Bijuu, for his thoughts?_ _He tried to stammer something out, but his shock was too great, and finally Kyuubi snapped, "__**Why do they seal, time and again, us in humans?**__**Jinchuuriki fight each other and then we die out, without even a chance for reincarnation!"**_

_Shukaku nodded understandingly, yet slowly._ _Certain regulations had to be achieved before reincarnation could ever happen for a Bijuu or not._ _If not, the one who had killed them would be hunted down by demons everywhere, especially the Bijuu who wished to move up a ranking, or even greedful humans who wished to be…_ _But there was still one thing the one-tailed demon did not understand. _

"_**Why do you think Jinchuuriki fight?" **__Kyuubi asked finally._ "_**It is true that they wish to kill the other demon and grow more powerful…but…what?!**__**I do not understand this 'friendship' that my brat speaks of.**__**It seems his entire thoughts revolve upon it when it is not dunken and sodden in that monstrousity that he calls 'ramen'!"**_

"_**Perhaps…it is because of the influences."**_ _At Kyuubi's gaze, Shukaku took that at as the sign to continue._ "_**My host has grown up in a village where all hate him and none love him, because no matter how they hide it, that shred of hatred still burns inside."**_

"_**It takes…a village…"**_ _Kyuubi whispered._ "…_**to raise a child."**_

"_**But all it takes…"**_ _Shukaku recited back from memory._ "_**Is deceit…anger…hate…fear…and greed to ruin all done."**_

_The two Bijuu sat in silence, and Shukaku studied his higher up superior._ _Red headed, though with traces of sharp orange here and there, spiky, slightly long hair, scarlet eyes, and a pale face, almost like the vampiric demons down south, looking quite testy in natural light, Kyuubi looked every inch the demon, even in this form._ _His eyes were closed once again, but the demonic traits could not be surpressed or hidden, even like this._

_With even sharper features than the average, and a lithe young form, Kyuubi could be mistaken for somefolke of even seventeen centuries._ _A frown embraced itself tightly on its owners face, but then again, that was Kyuubi's default facial expression._

_Finally, Kyuubi looked up at his inferior, Shukaku, eyed like a tanuki, crazed slightly in the outlook, with choppy brown hair and an air of indifference._ _Kyuubi never really did understand why he felt a…kind of…comradeship—if you could call it—with the one-tailed._ _There were other, far stronger than this Bijuu before him, yet Kyuubi had allowed the breech that Shukaku had created…he allowed the breech to open and Shukaku, obviously had opened it wider with glee._

_Now, a smile spread across the youth's lips and he leaned forward, and Shukaku did as well, giving an ear._ _He recognized this._ _An exchange of information between demons._ _Kyuubi brought back his hands and where his fingernails had been immediately extracted sharp painful claws that he slashed Shukaku's ear right off._

_The tanuki did not even flinch, ignoring the steady flow of blood that spurted right out, instead, offering the other, but Kyuubi leaned back, already finished._ _Satisfied with the price of what Kyuubi deemed was right for his information and how much info that Shukaku must give back, the one-tailed palmed his wound, healing it within a span of a 20,000__th__of a millisecond, before replacing his ear. _

"_**Tell me…what do you plan to do to your brat?"**_

"…_**kill him."**_

_Kyuubi frowned at the neutral, yet entirely smug sound, in the other's voice._ _Something was wrong…and Shukaku seemed to be taunting him._ _This information, he had already known._ _It was all Bijuu's goal to kill the host and escape back into freedom, back where the sun shone down upon them, back where they could live again, rule again-!_

"_**I'm actually having fun toying with his mind when he seeks to understand.**__**So…what are **__you__**planning with yours?"**__Shukaku asked casually._ _Kyuubi nearly gave it away, but caught himself in time._ _Shukaku was toying with him, playing mind games so that the younger would be subjected to give more information than actually agreed upon._ _It was, truly, an annoyance that one of Kyuubi's weaknesses—though he did careful to hide it and would never admit it, though would forever be confused as to how Shukaku found out—was that he was easily tricked._

_After all, with centuries comes wisdom, but Kyuubi was still mentally that thirteen century old kit demon running around, having fun slaughtering humans, good times, yes, but his innocence was still in tact and the fox still hadn't grown out of it._ _He doubted he'd ever will, but the whole realm be damned if they ever found that out. _

"_**So what are you planning, really?**__**Why do you go all through this, tell me," **__Kyuubi said softly._ "…_**other than freedom?**__**For I have a slight nagging that you are doing this for other than the common gain of all Bijuu sealed…"**_

_Shukaku grinned, baring his fangs and Kyuubi flinched, eyeing him wearily._ "_**I love to play games with little children, especially humans.**__**It's even better to break a friendship.**__**Who says I can't live this pitiful life as a sealed one without having my host vessel suffer even worse?"**_

_In terms of ear hearing, the silence was absolute._

_But a mock grin found its way to his superior and Kyuubi's eyes glinted in anticipation, before he licked his lips and spoke._

"_**And…dear, Shukaku, who says that I can't kill you right here?**__**Pathetic slugworm, you have spent far too much time focusing in this mind link.**__**Your host is ready to die at the moment.**__**Shall I-?"**_

_Before Kyuubi could finish, the shock erased itself from Shukaku's face before the mind link was terminated, and the other disappeared._ _Kyuubi sat stock still as he viewed the place where his inferior had sat, before a leer made itself clear on his face._

"_**Let the hunt…begin."**_

* * *

Do you feel sometimes you're all alone, upset and curled up in the corner, hugging your knees to your chest and the tears just tingling at the corners of your eyes when you want them to go away as you lower your head down so that your forehead touches your knees and your eyes are squeezed shut, or, maybe your sitting somewhere, staring into the horizon, trying to think, trying to make sense of the past events or maybe what will happen in the future, or talking to someone, trying to understand something, or, even throwing a tantrum and then…and then… 

…suddenly, you don't feel so alone anymore?

That, no, you're feeling all warm and lovey dovey all over, but, instead, you feel better, like you understand things that racked your brain, threatened to kill it because of the immense though you'd put into it but never seemed to make sense of what you had. Like…maybe, you're not so alone anymore, like someone's there, but there's not anyone?

Ghosts.

People say that ghosts don't exist, and, yes, that's true. Ghosts are a figment of imagination, but, indeed there ARE something of that sort. Only, they're not those whisper soft tablecloths you cut two holes for eyes and put it over your head and your whole body, shouting, 'wooooo' and depleting yourself of fresh oxygen.

They probably mean, those of the after life that you can't see, but are still there. People say that common sense says that ghosts only stay on earth and not go to heaven if they have some unfinished business, but that's a lie. Everything's a lie. Common sense doesn't say it. The people does. And gradually, the younger and older generation get used to the idea, so used to it there's no going back, because, frankly, there isn't a point that they don't just think of that the second they hear it.

Once someone is used to something, it's hard to stop.

In essence, maybe that's the same here.

If one's used to someone else's personality, it's awkward and seems either forced or completely different or just…wrong, when they experience…this…difference.

* * *

"_You who doesn't have any parents or siblings! You know __**nothing! NOTHING!**__ What do __**you**__ know what it's like?! You were alone from the __**start**__! How can you understand me, __**HUH?!**__"_

He blinked. Why…why was he remembering this? Sasuke…?

"_Shut up, dobe."_

…what?

"_You aren't scared…are you, you big chicken?"_

…damn it.

Damn it.

WHY…?

Tears dripped from the corners of his eyes as he curled into a ball in the corner, oblivious to the fact that he was no longer in control of his body. Uzumaki Naruto no longer cared right now. His thoughts were upset, jumbled, and Kyuubi was having the time of his life.

"I kill because I need to verify my existence. And by killing Uchiha, I can further verify that I exist. I need to confirm my existence and this is the only way I can."

His thoughts traveled to Gaara and Naruto felt worse than ever, curling up farther into that ball. Upset…upset, he felt so upset…

It hurt right there, right where his heart was. Tears dripped and furiously, he wiped them away with the back sleeve of his jacket but somehow, for some reason, they never stopped. Those tears never stopped falling from his eyes, they never stopped his emotions.

Emotional baggage, that was him.

"_Leave me alone, Uzumaki._ _You're a nuisance."_

His shoulders shook as he remembered that.

"_Ne, Gaara, don't be so me-ean!_ _That's not nice!"_

"…"

"_Eh?"_

"_I'm not nice."_

"_Err…okay?_ _Uhm, mind letting your sand know I'm not trying to kill you or anything?"_

"_Really…?_ _I was under the impression you wished to strangle me to death and suffocate me with your pathetic whinings and your—"_

"_Ga-aara!_ _Don't go all EMO on me!"_

"…"

"_Is Sasuke feeding anything to you via microphone or something?"_

"…_how about I just destroy all ramen in the world?"_

"_I'LL SHUT UP!"_

He couldn't even give a sore chuckle at that memory…

"…why…?"

* * *

"_**Hello…**_" He purred up at Gaara. 

Gaara looked horror stricken, surprised at the strength emitting from Naruto's right hand. His vocal chords were being crushed and as soon as the strangled sound of desperate longing to breath came out of his mouth, the instant he knew it was a mistake. Naruto's right hand, if even possible, squeezed harder. There seemed to be no end to his strength as Gaara felt like the bones in his neck were about to snap.

Air…

…air…!

--------------------------------------

Gaara made a strangled noise with what air was left in his throat and his saliva, before his eyes rolled back and his head fell down, unconscious. Kyuubi stared up at the boy, before glancing back behind him, a little smirk on his face, yet his hand not releasing the youth's throat.

Small chance as it may have been, the boy might survive this assault, be damned to Shukaku's unpredictability. At that, Kyuubi couldn't help but roar with laughter. Just like his host, to be so unpredictable, but, above all else, the Bijuu was quite surprised. Naruto hadn't even put up so much as a fight or a complaint, or even one of his wisecracks, the youth just seeped deeper into the darkness, wallowing in confusion.

Humans.

Kyuubi rolled his eyes.

Pathetic creatures, the whole lot of them.

But still, he couldn't help but feel a certain…how should he say…_interest _in them. They were cunning creatures, to be able to defeat demons most of the time, but what made them all so amazing was that they had been able to produce a drug to allow them to receive a Bijuu's power and soul without dying.

Should he wipe them all out? It seemed a pity. Such an intellectual race…

He paused, flicking his gaze back to Gaara's limp and still form.

As it turned out, when you're dealing with one of Shukaku's host vessels, that was a vital mistake.

* * *

_Guide me, Yondaime, so that one day, I can be just as strong as a Hokage as you were hailed to be. Because I really wanna become Hokage one day. I'm an idiot sometimes, I know, but sometimes, sometimes…it gets old, y'know? I hope, on this trip with Ero-sennin, YOUR sensei…that I'll grow stronger and maybe surpass you and become the strongest of all Kage, not only Hokage._

_-Naruto, age 13_

_I kill because I need to. And there is no other way to stop that. To confirm my existence, I'll squash away that of others, those with more, so that I too, can feel alive and truly know that my existence has a purpose. I love only myself. And…how long have I been telling myself that? The stupidity of Naruto is boundless, but even he has his moments. I wish to be more like him, indeed, yes, but to do that, I'll have to reach his goal. Kazekage may seem unattainable for many, but I shall obtain. I have no goal or purpose for my existence in this life and by striving to be Kazekage and protect this village of Sunagakure, I will find purpose and be at peace._

_-Gaara, age 14_

* * *

"_**What…**__did you do?"_

"_**Oh, it's you."**_ Kyuubi grit out, coughing out blood, keeled over, as he eyed Shukaku warily. It had been a mistake to knock the boy out cold, and it seemed as though Shukaku had protected and healed Gaara's throat almost immediately upon contact. So this was how Shukaku took over. So now the one-tailed was out of his body, free, free, free. Every second of Shukaku's freedom mocked him, like, 'Oh, I'm sorry! Is the great Kyuubi even worse off than me? At least _I'm_ free!'

"_SHIT happens, you stupid fox! Why the hell is Gaara-? The last time I saw him like this he was-!"_

"_**Yeah, I know, idiotic moronic kit."**_ Kyuubi shakily stood up, weight experimentally switched between two legs, his breathing ragged and his body feeling like it had been forced into the heart of a fire. That was hot. Very hot. Even for Kyuubi no Kitsune, who was a fox demon born in flames, he was ready to collapse. "_**Shut up and let me think."**_

"…_you'd better not kill Gaara."_

"_**And if I did?"**_ He narrowly avoided one of the demon's wind jutsu, feeling the collapsing of his lungs and he immediately curled up, clutching it. "_**UGH! You stupid…moronic…you…your body is so weak that I can't even-!**_"

"_Don't diss my body if you're using it, stupid! Just let me back in!"_

"_**As they say, kitling…"**_ Kyuubi growled, bringing out another one of his tails. It took nearly all he had—that was how bloody pathetically WEAK he was at that moment, and he was on the verge of collapsing, but the power that flowed through easily awakened him and the second tail sprung. "_**Shut the fuck up, shit head."**_

It was five seconds of silence, five seconds of silence that the pounding stopped for, five seconds that Kyuubi would eternally be grateful.

He spent more thought in that five seconds than anything else.

"…_it…hurts."_ Finally Naruto's voice came weakly.

Kyuubi felt it too. "_**Bear the pain, kit. What are you, a…what you call it…ah, yes, a fucking wuss?"**_

A weak laugh could be heard from his alter. "…_you…swearing…never thought…"_

Then all was silent in the link between them. Kyuubi didn't bother calling the youth's name. It didn't matter, wouldn't have mattered, anyway, but if Naruto's soul was gone, separated from the body, he'd be stuck with the body, and somehow die too. The boy's body was too weak, he could feel even the ache in his bones quickly feeling sore at the use of even the _second_ tail.

"_**Tch."**_ Kyuubi let out a long sigh. "_**Damn, I really can't do this looking like you, shit head."**_ Somehow, swearing, even in another language made him feel calmer, relaxed and steadily more pissed off. He henged…into what had been his less monstrous form. The form he had sat down with Shukaku with and he with a flick of his hand, he stopped Shukaku's finishing blow. "_**Pot-belly,"**_ He growled. "…_**let's settle this civilly."**_

At that, a chuckle emerged from Shukaku and he complied. As the smoke cleared, Kyuubi could make out his figure before he released his strength, relaxing his hand and lowering it back to his side. At that instant, a fraction of a 50,000th of a second, even faster than how Shukaku had healed his own ear, the tanuki had Kyuubi held up against the wall by the neck, increasing his strength each turn of the minute.

"…_**so…how does it feel, now, brat? That host of mine wouldn't stop screaming in his own mind, wouldn't shut up, and I have you to blame for that. Damn it, my ears are on the fritz, moron."**_

"_**You know Bijuu don't need air."**_ Kyuubi replied, looking oh-so-non-caringly down at him, the irony of him being in the same position as Gaara quite sickening to his stomach.

"_**True, but I'm pissed and you know that. Why the blasted Shian's life would I otherwise use human words to etch out my frustration?"**_

"_**Frustration?**_" Kyuubi laughed loudly and Shukaku glowered, letting his grip slacken. Then, using the 100,000th of a second speed, Kyuubi used an arm push to push Shukaku off him, sending him with 1/1999th of his power, before he dropped down as gravity took over, flipping and pushing off the wall as he steadily whipped out kunai and weapons smoothly, and kicking the tanuki up.

Disappearing with the speed of a speed demon, demons born for racing and running, the likelihood of one being born a good one of a thousand, Kyuubi appeared right above him and preformed an axe kick, right down in the groin area.

Despite being a demon in henge, some parts of males, no matter what species, remain. Let's just leave it at that.

Clutching almost instinctively in protection, Shukaku had rolled into a ball, allowing him to speed up his ascent, and crashing into Kyuubi, who immediately felt the after effects, coughing out the sands in his lungs. The raccoon demon wasn't faring any better, as he barely landed without collapsing.

"_**You…dirty…little…!"**_

"_**Heh." **_ Kyuubi smirked, even though he felt like he wanted to puke at the moment. "_**Don't mess with me, little lone-tail. Being King of all Bijuu means I'm no pushover, yes, but I hung out with youkai in my youth."**_

"_**Youkai…demon who sacrifice their sanity to become powerful…"**_ At that, Shukaku laughed. "_**Just WHO do you think you're dealing with, kiddo?! I was here longer than you, thank you very much, and I've already half-youkai."**_

"_**WHAT?!"**_

"_**That's right.**_" Shukaku stood up and arched his hands into claw-like shapes. "…_**and judging from your dirty fighting skills, I'd say Konan had something to do with that? Musty little brat, took me half a tail swing to kill him, always leaping about."**_

"_**You-!**_"

"_**I thought we all taught you very well, young master Kyuubi.**_" Shukaku's tone of voice changed completely as he seemed to look right through his younger superior. "…_**DEMONS don't make friends. Apparently, the King of Bijuu has gotten SOFT. Perhaps a new one is required."**_

"_**I'll murder you!**_" Kyuubi growled, but somehow, Naruto's voice spoke along. "_**Kit…?"**_

"_Damn fox, I don't care about your stupid past and all that yadda yaddah, because, hell, I've been through that! I just think…I know I'd get angry if Sasuke died, I know I would. I did when Haku 'murdered' him, and I know I'd get even angrier if Gaara died. I won't let you kill him, but I'll help you."_

"_**And what can an idiot like you do—"**_

Suddenly, a surge of utmost power shot through Kyuubi's tenketsu and he struggled to contain it.

"_I'm not helping you because I want to…but because some helped me when I needed it, even though I didn't want it. Sasuke helped me, even though he didn't know it. I'm going to bring him back, damn it, and I won't get killed in one of your fights!"_

A genuine, yet sad smile found itself on Kyuubi's lips as he shook his head and relaxed his body.

"…_**I believe in you.**_" Came out of his lips before Naruto took over once more. "_**I believe…you'll be able to do that. Huh, crazy human kitling, growing on me…"**_ Kyuubi thought he was getting soft, but that wasn't it. It was because Naruto was getting stronger. In both physical and mental ways.

* * *

"Does the damage suit you?" came Naruto's steady voice. Shukaku noted the change in both bloodlust and eye color, as well as voice. 

"_**The mighty Kyuubi has fallen behind and is forced to use his own host as a suicide…what a child."**_ Shukaku sighed, shaking his head. "_**Truth be told, I'll never understand traitorous demons who've strayed from the path to trusting humans and friendship. Friendship…who needs it?"**_

"If anyone…" Naruto said softly. "…you do." Then, he analyzed the situation. Normally, hey, he'd just run and beat the guy hand to hand, but this was…Shukaku, Gaara's demon. The last time he fought him, he had Boss Toad with him so…

"_**Don't try it, kitling."**_

"What? Why?"

"_**True, Gamabunta is the size of a Bijuu, but that doesn't mean he can stand up to him. I could sense the end of that battle, you both ran out of chakra. And in here, my charkra isn't enough, even for this battle. Now that the lone-tail is in freedom of the outer world, he has a greater chance of winning."**_

"But…" Naruto argued loudly. "Last time, we managed to beat the hell out of him!" Kyuubi didn't respond right away, leaving Naruto to get attacked by Shukaku's Fuuton jutsu, and he collided heavily against the Kazekage building with a solid thud, before he slid to the sandy ground, head lolling.

"_**That was because Gaara was there, unconscious. Unfortunately, Shukaku's a pretty smart Bijuu. Once it happens, he takes equal measure not to let it happen again."**_

"I don't…" Naruto whispered. "I don't want to know why. I want to save my best friend."

"_**Kit, it might not be my place to ask, but…why? I lost Konan."**_

"And you were angry."

"_**Yes, but demons get over it."**_

"You shouldn't. When…when we first met, Gaara and me, I…I saw who I'd be if Iruka-sensei, Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme, Kakashi-sensei, Konohamaru, Old man Hokage, Tsunade-baa-chan, Ero-sennin, and everyone else. Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Fuzzy Eyebrows, Hinata… If I hadn't known any of them…if they hadn't given me a kind word, a hand up… I wouldn't have been _me._ I'd have been what Gaara had become."

"…"

"Stupid fox, you just don't get it, do you?" Naruto whispered hoarsely, throat sore and coughing out bitter sand. "…I can't give up on my friend like you could after a few seconds, because I'm _human._ Humans are spoilt, I know, we're pathetic that way. We don't give up because our pride won't let us. We won't back down because we're stubborn."

"…_**and…are you stubborn kitling?"**_

Naruto closed his eyes. "Yes." He said finally. "Yes, I am."

* * *

Then, his eyes snapped open, purple. Shukaku stared. "_**Purple eyes…interesting."**_

"_It's my turn, Shukaku."_ Naruto said, getting up, quietly.

"_**Oh, really? What's the purple eyes going to do? SHOCK me to death with that unnatural colour?!" **_Shukaku roared with laughter.

"_No."_ Naruto whispered. "_This isn't between you and Kyuubi and me. It's between only two."_

"_**And who? Your mommy?"**_ Shukaku taunted, striding up and gripping Naruto by his hair and thrusting him back against the building wall. "_**Let me tell you, little fox."**_ Shukaku hissed into his ear. "_**Demons don't play nice."**_

"…_Yeah, maybe."_ Shukaku was surprised to see a smirk on Naruto's face, gripping harder. "_But Jinchuuriki don't play nicer."_ And then he kicked Shukaku where it mattered, before ducking under Shukaku's flailing lone arm, throwing a roundhouse kick this time in the demon's stomach.

Then, red overtook the purple, and Naruto blacked out, literally. Everything became deathly quiet, but his thoughts were nothing but blankness, and he felt nothing. But he was still conscious, for some reason. Then, when Naruto regained consciousness, still standing, he stood before a beaten Shukaku, his hands bloodied with blood.

And most of the blood wasn't his…

"_**Kitling…"**_ Kyuubi said quietly. "_**I don't think we should ever…ever agree on something again."**_

And Naruto, watching wide-eyed in mute horror as Shukaku's henge disappeared and an unconscious, yet still bleeding Gaara scarcely breathing before him on the ground. The lump in his throat returned from hell, and Naruto's eyes watered as his legs turned to jelly and he fell to his knees, staring.

What came out of his mouth soon was…

"…why_?!"_

Why did everything he ever did become worse of than it originally had become?

* * *

The Kyuubi no Kitsune stood quietly watching the remaints of his host's soul before his jail cell ebb away back where it belonged, before heaving a sigh, scarlet eyes glaring fiercly. What a weak host. He'd have been able to have done better, the little brat! 

"_**I want to see the sun!"**_ He howled, ramming his tails against the bars in hopelessness, knowing full well that the cell gates would not open. "_**I want to taste blood again! And what does that STUPID, IDIOTIC, MORONIC HOST OF MINE DO AT THE SIGHT OF IT?! He CRIES! He bloody CRIES! I have no need for weaklings!"**_

And with a mighty howl, he threw his whole being against the bars in anger, glowering at that which imprisoned him into this dept of water, near black underground sewer.

"_**You're alone, are you boy?!"**_ He barked into the neverending halls, it echoing away from him. "_**Damn it, FEEL alone for all I care!"**_

And he turned tail from the gate and wandered further into his cell, away from prying eyes. No longer would he choose to help that weakling. Helping that brat had been a mistake. Thinking the brat was growing like a fox kitling would was a mistake.

He curled up in the far back corner, head resting on his paws before he closed his eyes angrily shut.

…just _giving_ the brat the chakra was a mistake.

He would never help again. Never again, Kyuubi swore to himself.

Never again.

* * *

Naruto woke up, almost uncertain, with sand in his mouth. "MWFFT!" He spit it all out, trying to get the grains out. 

He didn't notice the faint traces of red chakra ebb back away into his self, nor did he now notice Gaara was nowhere to be seen and the blood was gone. The fight had been completely wiped away by Kyuubi, and the sand had been overturned so that he wouldn't remember anything. He didn't remember anything except…

He peeked around the corner. Where was he? "Shit, I swear, where am I?" He asked, idiotically as around him were bouts of sand. "Where did I come from? All I remember is talking to Iruka-sensei and—" Naruto nearly leapt up a foot mile. "OH SHIT! I'M GONNA BE LATE!"

And ramen senses tingling Naruto ran into someone, obviously.

It was not Gaara.

"OI! Watch where you're going!" Temari barked.

"OI! STOP YELLING AT ME!" Naruto yelled back.

"…hey, aren't you Uzumak—I mean, Naruto-kun?"

"Uh-huh." He puffed up his chest. "S'me."

"What the hell are you doing in Suna?"

"That's what _**I'd **_like to know."

"And your cast is gone?"

"Oh, yeah." Naruto stared vaguely back at his sandaled foot. "Yeah, the stupid fox is pretty useful sometimes. He healed it halfway from Suna to Konoha, so I just cut open the cast with the kunai and walked back."

"I see…" There wasn't really much to see, really.

* * *

_I knew something was wrong…but what?_ _Why had Naruto-kun come back to our village when just yesterday or so, he had stormed out?_ _Normally, I'm sure, he'd go right up to Gaara and apologize for his own pig-headedness…right?_ _But there's something wrong._ _There's a blankness in his eyes I can't discern…_

_-Temari_

* * *

"Okay, I'm going now." Naruto turned and walked away, waving. "Thanks for the chat, Temari-nee-san!" 

"Naruto…" Temari called after him. "You're going the wrong way."

Sheepish, Naruto turned red and ran past her. "Sorry, can't stay, gotta go!"

"Don't you want to stay and apologize to Gaara?" At that, he froze in place and regained his footing, back towards here, fists visibly clenched and head lowered slightly as his body shook and trembled. In what, though? Temari automatically sensed malice of anger and upset at the mention of her youngest brother's name, but stood firm in her ground. She had more important things to do, yes, it was true, but Temari found that she couldn't seem to leave the possible solution to her brother's isolation and moodiness.

'_Perhaps the solution of this problem can be found through the one who helped start it all. After all, Naruto-kun's the only one I've seen Gaara respect at all, really…but with his sudden change in attitude…'_ Temari shook those negative thoughts away. '_We have to try. For all __**we **__know, Gaara could turn into…into that…Shukaku, any minute!'_

"Tell Gaara he should pull that stick out his ass, because this time, I'm not doing it for him at all!" Naruto scowled and walked away.

"Uzumaki-kun, please reconsider--!"

"NO! The dude's an asshole and HE KNOWS IT! If he wants to feel better, all nice and warm," Naruto's voice switched to heavy sarcasm. "Then he should just go set fire to something flammable, jump in, and DIE!" He whirled around to glare at her, and Temari saw tears mixed in. Just barely saw tears before turned back around again. "I know, this is stupid of me, but I can't help but HATE him!"

"Why?"

"HE'S AN ASSHOLE! I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS!"

"…so if you _thought_ you were friends, but that person who you thought you were friends with proved otherwise…are you talking about the Uchiha Sasuke?"

"…NO."

"You are, aren't you…?"

"No! This is _Gaara_ I'm talking about! NOT Sasuke—"

"…" She just raised an eyebrow, arms folded. Temari couldn't help but enrage him further. This was fun.

"Don't you have a village to do mission for?!" He finally glowered at last.

"What is going on here?"

"Oh, hello, Gaara, Uzumaki-kun and I were just—"

"_**YOU!**_"

"…" Gaara glared back at that pointed finger. "Yes. Me."

"…what do you want?" Naruto yelled, taking no notice that Gaara looked paler than normal and that he was not wearing the Kazekage garb.

"…"

"Yeah, okay, well, goodbye for lifelines, young Kazekage asshole!" Naruto stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked off in a stomp.

"Wait, Naruto!"

"What?!"

"I'm coming too."

"WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU WANT TO?"

"Because you're a liable danger to yourself." Gaara said smoothly before easily avoiding Naruto's glare. "Temari, were you not going to Konoha?"

"HEY! **LISTEN TO ME!**"

"Well, yeah, but…I think I'll do it later..." She looked warily at the angry Naruto stomping towards the Suna entrance between two tall cliffs, and looked back at her little brother. "I'll take of your duties here…if that's alright."

"Very well. Tell my council that I am unable to attend because of…ah…inconveniences." Gaara spoke.

"Is that why you're not dressed in your Kazekage garb like you usually are?" She asked as Gaara shouldered his gourd.

"Quite." Gaara saw no need to mention that his clothing had been soaked with blood and that numerous wounds had somehow popped all over his body.

"I see…"

As usual, there was nothing much to see, but in, all honesty, Temari prayed for the peace that was still lasting at this very moment. May Kami-sama have mercy on their souls so that Shukaku and perhaps, maybe Kyuubi, would not get out of control.

She didn't know that they had already HAD their fun.

It wasn't fun at all.

But it made both Bijuu more determined to escape than ever. To HELL with their hosts' lives. Freedom was the prize. Freedom…was everything.

* * *

"Why the hell are you coming with me?! OTHER THAN BECAUSE I'M _**such**_ a 'liable danger to myself'?" Naruto mocked. 

"I have important business in Konoha." Gaara replied simply.

"You god-damned, hypocrite!" Naruto yelled to the heavens, throwing up his arms.

"I am quite aware that a 'hypocrite' is god-damned. Now will you tell me why you are so upset with me?" Gaara asked, finding it rather difficult to walk at Naruto's speedy and angry pace through the sand, but, nevertheless, he managed, chest only barely heaving.

"I wasn't talking to you." Naruto stuck out his tongue childishly. "I'm talking about KAMI-SAMA!"

"Kami-sama?" If this were not supposed to be a serious conversation of a make-up between quarrelling friends, and if this was not Sabaku no Gaara, Kazekage of Sunagakure, Gaara would have almost sounded amused. But nooooo, Naruto supposed it was idle angering of him. And by damned was he, if it weren't working already.

"SHUT. UP. It's HIS bloody fault that I'm fighting with YOU!"

"I wasn't aware the fact that our destiny was controlled, like Hyuuga had said."

Naruto stared at him, at a loss for words, before angrily folding his arms and hunching his shoulders up. "Not like _**you**_ care."

"Maybe I don't. Maybe I do." Gaara shrugged, "But, nevertheless, it is getting rather annoying that you glare at me like that."

"And I'm not supposed to do that?!"

"Actually, that's supposed to be my job."

A supposed silence fell in between them from the heavens, and even though he didn't show it on the outside, Gaara was awfully nervous. This was his first time every apologizing. He had never apologized in his LIFE. Hey, if you were a deranged killer at age 6, you didn't need to. But now…

Whenever he thought of someone apologizing, Gaara assumed it was always some wimp whose palms sweat out. He had never been able to figure out why they had been so…pathetic, whenever he saw someone trying to apologize. Now he knew why.

Because if he said even the slightest thing wrong…this friendship would be lost forever.

Gaara didn't know why it seemed to be so important to him. It…just felt…well, _natural._

"I predict that we'll fall into pieces every time this happens." Naruto sighed, before falling backwards on the sand, not giving a damn anymore, and he stared up at the sky. "A…h…geez, why does life have to be so hard?"

Gaara found himself rooted to the spot, and his mouth seemed sluggish and it took a lot of effort to even speak and force his brain to think of something smart to say. "Souka…"

"_You__see?!"_ Naruto gave him a look of disbelief, before he groaned and immediately stood up, rubbing his sore backside. "Damn! I sat on something pointy! Oo, a cactus!"

"If it's poisonous, there is no way in hell I am sucking that out of your arse." Gaara said almost immediately before crinkling his face in disgust. What the heck was he thinking? That sentence just popped out. Sabaku no Gaara didn't think of such things, such…moronic…

Naruto just stared at him before bursting into laughter, keeling over, "Oo, oo, ahahaha, good one, ahahahahahahaahahaha, hahahahahaaha, woooo!" He coughed out some sand before straightening and grinning at Gaara and walking over and slapping his back. Gaara nearly keeled over from shock but he set his glare instead upon the shinobi. Naruto didn't seem to mind anymore. "Finally, you show your true thoughts!" He teased. "I can't BELIEVE you said that with a straight face, Gaara!"

"Uzumaki, Shut. Up." Gaara started walking again, but this time, Naruto followed.

This time, however, it happened like it should've. Naruto, happy-go-lucky, and Gaara, satisfied and his moody old self again. However, Gaara wondered what had prompted this change so fast. Most 'fights' between friends lasted around from a few days to forever. So, why was this only a ONE DAY FIGHT?

What a strange friendship.

"_**A-men to that."**_

"URK!" Naruto fell to his knees, eyes painfully closed shut, as he gripped his stomach, his other gripped into the sand. He was hunched and he fought the urge to hurl, but it felt horrible, his stomach churning and pounding. "Ugh…uh…Ua-" He swallowed his gag, and choked, coughing at the bitter taste.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Gaara assumed that this was another one of his pranks before realizing that Naruto wasn't jumping up and saying, 'I COULD'VE fooled you!'. In fact, said blond looked ready to welcome death. "What did you eat?"

"More like didn't eat anything." A hoarse, shriveled voice answered him, quite soft as though the throat had been sore. Naruto looked sick. Real sick. His eyes were half closed and on his knees, he looked ready to collapse anytime.

Gaara said nothing in reply, merely walking over to Naruto's side and gripping him by the upper arm. "Can you get up?" He asked calmly, but inside, he was freaking out. What was going on?! He could deal with bloody wounds, head-dizzying corpses, and fear-driven memories and revenges, and physcos after his Bijuu, but, this…

Gaara wasn't a medical doctor. But he knew someone who was.

"We've got to get you to Tsunade-sama." He said firmly. "Can you stand, Naruto?"

"DOES IT…" Naruto coughed, before his voice softened to a hoarse whisper, screeching and making the hairs on the back of Gaara's neck stand on end. "…does it look like…I…ca--?" He choked, before, unable to hold it down and looking awfully green and purple, vomited.

Gaara immediately recoiled, standing back away from the vomit, and eyes widening in horror. Think of all the diseases that could've carried! Bacteria! Gaara didn't know why he was all so suddenly concerned with not being filthy, but…then he remembered his guord.

'_I don't want to touch him.'_ Why was he thinking that?

"_**Is your own so called 'best friend' so revolting you can't carry him on your own?"**_ Shukaku asked. Gaara jumped, but forced himself to calm down, as Shukaku couldn't possibly take over now that he— "_**Heh. If the boy knew, he wouldn't be so keen on being your friend, brat."**_

'_It's not like that…'_ But he was fighting a losing battle, and he knew it. '_Just pick him up.' _He thought desperately. '_We need to get him to Konoha as soon as possible. I don't know whether this is a fatal disease or something, because I've never gotten sick for some reason—_'

"_**Thank me. It's because of me you never get sick. Jinchuuriki usually have great immune systems thanks to the Bijuu inside them, so they are less likely to get affected, but that doesn't make them completely immune, if they force or somehow get it into their system, we can't get it all out."**_Shukaku sounded smug. "_**Or, if we choose not to help at all, the same thing happens."**_

'_SHUT UP! Just…just pick him up!'_

"_**Do I, after that, drop him in some quicksand so he dies?"**_

'_NO!_'

"_**Specifically give me the details, oh-host, because, I can find loopholes when necessary, and having a Bijuu in you is both the greatest curse and blessing. Am I right? After all, still can't sleep? Let me out, little boy, let me be free, now."**_

"SHUT. UP!" Gaara roared, making Naruto flinch and the boy threw up again.

"Quiet…please…" His head was pounding, his vision swirling and his center of gravity felt like it had flew right out the window, LITERALLY. He felt weightless and Gaara nervously kept him from falling face first into the sand by helping him up. "…can't…" His speech became slurred and he closed his eyes, unable to continue.

"_**Need help now?"**_

"SHUT UP." He shook, and he shook his head too as he stared at Naruto. "I can't…I don't _**need**_ your help." It was by miracle, that Gaara managed to get Naruto onto his back without breaking anything. Well, his pride was ruined even further when Naruto vomited on his neck.

"_**Suit yourself." **_Shukaku sounded amused. "_**I'll watch and get the popcorn."**_

"I don't need your help. I can do this on my own." Gaara found it rather difficult to walk with a drooping and limp Naruto on his back, but nevertheless, managed two steps before his knees shook and he fell to them, the weight of Naruto only adding to the impact, and the wind was nearly knocked out of him. "I can do this on my own…I need…I don't need your help."

"_**Keep telling yourself that.**_"

* * *

Naruto awoke to bright lights and someone's big face peering over hi—"OHMYGOD IT'S SATAN! UGLINESS OF DOOM, PLEASE _**SPARE**_ ME!" Naruto sat up immediately and conked the figure right on the forehead with his own. Of course, Naruto's head was quite hard, as opposed to the doctor's, who fell into an unconscious slump beside his hospital bed. 

Wait…

Naruto blinked.

"I'm in the hospital…AGAIN?!"

* * *

"What are you doing?" Tsunade asked as she walked into the room, Gaara in tow, to check up on her patient. 

"What does it look like?!" Naruto yelled back. "I'm walking! And then I'm getting out of this dump!"

"Are you calling a hospital a dump? Specifically speaking…_**MY**_ hospital, you little ingrate?!" Multiple veins popped on her forehead. It could've been a final warning to ANYONE, but Naruto. Gaara watched Naruto silently.

"OF COURSE I AM! I've been in here, and, y'know what? Doctors give crap to anyone who'll pay them. SUCK-UPS. They tell you what you want to know, not what you necessarily NEED to know. Geez!" Naruto threw up his hands as he wandered around the room, ruffling through things. "Where the hell are my pants?!"

Yessiree, indeed, at this moment, Naruto was walking around completely naked except for some froggy boxers he wore. Thank god that the windows and curtains were closed and that Gaara had closed the door behind him. No, you fangirls can't come in, I'm sorry. Because Gaara would kick you out and you'd ruin the story.

"Naruto…" Tsunade twitched, hand on her forehead. "…get back under the covers."

"No way, baa-chan, I need to find my pants so I can get the hell out of here and start training!" Naruto announced loudly. "HEY, I FOUND MY PANTS!"

Tsunade slapped her forehead. "Why me…" She muttered.

"Oh yeah!" Naruto snapped his fingers after putting on his pants, and he pointed at Gaara. "Didja finish your meeting with Tsunade-baa-chan or whatever you needed to tell her?"

"Naruto, what on earth are you talking about?" Tsunade asked. "Gaara-sama and I didn't talk about anything except for your health. And I still have no idea what the reason for what happened was. Nausea, vomiting, you might as well be sick, but I've checked you all out. Normal temperature, you're even acting like yourself. There's nothing wrong with you."

…

Naruto whirled around and pointed accusingly at Gaara. "LIAR! You said you had important business here!"

"Whoops." Gaara replied flatly, without a care.

Naruto twitched. "Gaara, you are…DEAD."

"Do I look like I care?"

TWITCH.

"DAMN IT, YOU'D BETTER!"

* * *

"Oi, Ga-ara!" Naruto whined. "C'mon…pleeeaaaaasee?" 

"NO, she said no ramen, Uzumaki." Gaara growled. "So for the last STINKING time, _**stop asking.**_"

Naruto frowned, crossing his arms and glaring. Gaara glared back and, frankly, in a glaring match between Gaara and Naruto, who do you think would win, hrm? Yeah, it's Gaara. Obviously. Naruto looked away with a sigh, stretching. Tsunade-baa-chan had given him a beating, so now he had to stay here for at least a night. Damn it, he should have been TRAINING!

"Just go to sleep. It'll make the time go faster."

"Not that _you'd_ know." Naruto shot back. Gaara scowled and looked back down at the paperwork he had arranged to be brought over from Sunagakure. Obviously, if Naruto were to go crazy, only he, Gaara, would be able to shut him up. Tsunade-sama obviously would overdo it as he had seen. Not that he'd tell it to her face, though. Self-preservation is a natural instinct. It must've been that Naruto lost it by hitting his head as a child.

It could've been ages, but gradually, the lids of Naruto's eyes fell and he sank down in a lying position, curling up into a ball and drawing up the covers, with a shiver. And then his breathing became level. Gaara immediately knew he was asleep. Hey, being awake when everyone is asleep is the result of that. You could tell if someone was faking it.

The Kazekage frowned once more at Naruto, before shaking his head.

He had strayed too far from his duties and this was all very nice for a while, but really, was it all necessary? He had a village to go and maintain. Naruto's 'sickness' wasn't anything to be worried about. Not like Naruto'd die, anyway.

A few hours later, Gaara departed from Konohagakure and left for Suna, Naruto still snoring gently in the bed he had dubbed as, 'Bed bastard number 2.' Bed bastard number 1 was currently the guy who sold mattresses down the street who threw the one he had at his apartment right now at his face in an attempt to kill when he was at age 5.

Interesting life everyone leads.

Now, you'd think Naruto's dreams would be sweat, about non-stop ramen day in and day out as treated to him by Iruka-sensei, Sakura professing her undying love to him and admitting that Sasuke wasn't for her, Sasuke coming back and begging forgiveness, Kakashi-sensei _finally _training him, Tsunade being so impressed to give him the role of Hokage, Ero-sennin stopping his perverted information gathering and teaching him a kick-ass move-!

But…

…what about his nightmares?

* * *

Floating in this eternal blank white, Naruto didn't know where he was. Maybe that was better for him. Maybe. 

"_It's because of ours bonds that we suffer! Does someone like you even know how it is to lose that?!"_

Before, he had no answer, but this time, he managed to be able to open his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Naruto's own voice throttled past him, shocking him. He had said that…he had said this to Sasuke…in reply…

"…_Sasuke. It's true. That I…I don't know how…I don't know anything about real parents…siblings…or anything like that. But…I can't break that promise I made to Sakura-chan! And I can't break the promise I made to myself! I can't! I'm going to bring you back to Konoha, whether I have to break both your arms and legs myself to do it!"_

"_Why? Why would you…"_

----------------------------------------

"Then…" Naruto whispered. "…then, why back then…?"

* * *

"_Why would you go that far for me…?"_

"_Because…" Naruto smiled sadly up at him, his demonic red eyes blinking in a struggle not to unleash tears and the whiskers on his cheeks more pronounced than ever. "It was…the bond I was able to make…and it was…with __**you**__." Somehow, those words gave Naruto strength. "And that's why, Sasuke…that's why I'll stop you!!"_

* * *

"…why…at that time…?"

* * *

"…_then," Sasuke's shocked expression morphed back into an almost serene, yet emotionless expression on his face. "I'll just have to break those bonds."_

* * *

"Why didn't…you kill me?!" Tears rolled down Naruto's face as he shouted angrily, sitting up abruptly in that hospital bed, chest heaving, and his body trembling in fear and upset. His head lowered once he realized where he was. And he whispered once again… "…why…?"

* * *

If…if Gaara had chosen to stay behind, he would have been able to comfort his friend. But even if Gaara had chosen to stay behind… 

He would've looked unnerved, and unsure of what to do. This situation…it…it would've been too much to handle. He hadn't been there when Naruto had fought Sasuke, nor had he been told what had happened. Whatever had happened in that battle in the Valley of the End, had stayed within only Sasuke and Naruto's memories.

Gaara wouldn't have been able to help.

Because in some points in life, the only ones who really _can_ help are you, you, you.

* * *

"_The night is darkest before dawn.  
Do you fear what waits in that hour?"_

* * *

**Author's Note: **** If I need to take this whole thing down again and edit, I shall scream. T-T I hafta wake up early t'morrow, so heading into bed now. Time is now 10:18.  
**


	8. Chapter 8

* * *

  


* * *

  


Chapter 8

* * *

_**In a world where there are Jinchuuriki, there will almost ALWAYS be the Game.  
The Game is the fight between the Bijuu and their hosts.  
The winner take all, the body, the soul, the life, the POWER.  
The loser will perish and lose everything.  
Where friendship between Jinchuuriki is impossible...  
Where hatred between Bijuu and humans is inevitable...  
The Game begins...  
The Game begins.**_

* * *

Gaara never slept.

After all, Shukaku had been a personal matter. And Gaara detested relying on other people. One thing he had always imagined was that if he had given in to sleep, given in to hours of pointless unconsciousness and unawareness...was a monster erupting, escaping, living, thriving...and _destroying._

It wasn't that Gaara hated that.

He hated everyone around him.

People who smiled like idiots, who kept on nodding their heads in every way possible, if only to look away from the truth, were one of the types of people he loathed. What _good_ was trying to hide the reality? What _help_ was looking away from the bad things that happened in your life?! What _pathetic reason_ did they all have for trying to _'get over'_ it all?!

And even _now._

Gaara hated Naruto.

He hated the boy who could still smile.

But most of all, he hated Naruto, because...

...because Naruto reminded him of who he had been...and who he might've become.

* * *

"Ungh..." Gaara held his head. It hurt and pounded.

Pushing and rubbing his temples did not help, neither did pressing hard on his forehead.

It was as though somebody was having a party inside without his brain's consent.

"DAMN IT!" He cursed and angrily hit the wall with the side of his fist, as he leaned weakly against it. Sweat trickled down his forehead, and his fingers...they just _wouldn't bloody respond._

Gaara heard a voice then.

It was loud, and it echoed in his head. What it said, he had no idea. It was...almost as though it was singing. Resounding in itself, and layering itself again and again, he wondered why his eardrums had not burst.

Just as he was complementing stabbing something, the voice quieted down, leaving only a bitter silence, before it calmly came back, loud and strong.

Gaara was aware that the more he listened to it, and the more it was in his head, the pain in his head started to hurt less and less.

But it wasn't until he was collapsed on his side that his brain discovered he was barely conscious, fading slowly from reality.

His eyes closed.

...and all was silent as the words finally made sense.

He was not conscious enough to hear it, but it echoed again and again nevertheless.

_**Let the Game begin.**_

* * *

The fear ran through him, encasing him and choking him. Naruto wanted nothing more than to _run._

It was not the same sensation as the time Gaara had nearly killed him.

But the feeling of utter loss and complete vulnerability had not escaped him at all, and once more he found tears forming in his eyes and his legs shaking under him.

It was _not_ possible to run away.

It was _not_ possible to hide it.

_It was absolutely not possible to smile and 'get over it'._ It hurt, and his chest kept on hurting.

It was like a kunai was embedded deep into his heart and he was dying each and every second he breathed.

Melodramatic?

Thinking that word, Naruto choked on a forced laugh that nearly shattered his own vocal chords, fragile and useless. He was once again reminded of many things—things that he only caught a glimpse of in his mind's eye, things he was not capable of understanding and his brain not able to translate for him.

Like the clouds, no matter how much he stretched his arm, no matter how much it hurt, no matter where he went... No matter what, they were always too far away from him. They were always...deliberately mocking him...

* * *

"_Hey! What are you doing?"_

_Me? I'm just...playing._

"_What are you playing? With...__**mud and sticks**__?!"_

_It's MY game. __**I **__like it._

"_Well, it's WEIRD. I mean, C'MON! __**Everyone**__plays __**ninja**__ instead!!"_

_Ninja? What's that?_

"_...huh? What?"_

_Why are you two talking so quietly like that?_

"_...oh, __**I see.**__"_

_H-huh? What? Is there something on my face?_

"_Let's go. He's creepy."_

_Wait! What?! What did __**I**__ do?!_

"_Oo, lookit. He's getting __**angry.**__"_

_OW! Why?! OW!_

"_Get away! You don't even __**know**__ what a ninja is!"_

"_**My**__ dad calls those people mentally retarded."_

"_NYAHAHAHA! Retarded, retarded!! You're __**retarded!!**_"

_I'm...WHAT?! What is-?!_

_**CUT THAT OUT!!**_

_**STOP HITTING ME!!**_

"_He's getting up, hit him again!"_

"_I'm out of rocks!"_

"_Use a stick, idiot!!"_

_Wha--!_

"_There's no more!"_

_What are you doing to me--?!_

"_**MOOOM, that boy hit me!!**__"_

_But I didn't—_

_AUUUUUUUUUUUGH!_

* * *

WHAM!!

Naruto fell to the ground collapsed in a sad heap, his head pounding and the world swirling around him.

As he slowly lifted his head, he squinted against the light that streamed down from the canopy of the trees and their leaves and before he knew it, gaped at who he saw.

A lone word threaded its way through his clumsy lips.

"...Sa...suke?"

Sasuke stared down at him, with a strange smile on his face. It was strangely charming and enrapturing. It was affection with signs of rivalry in his onyx black eyes. Naruto found himself unable to take his eyes of him and as Sasuke offered him a hand up, a moment was cast in frozen silence.

"...is that...? Sasuke, are you...?" Naruto could not bring himself to say it. He could not ask whether or not Sasuke was... He sucked his in his breath... "...real?"

At that, Sasuke's mouth curved further up and his eyes change. Now, he was smirking, as though something bad was going to happen, quietly anticipating it with eager atmosphere.

Naruto was about to ask what was wrong before he felt an unbearable pain equal to burning around his stomach. Before he knew it, he was back, collapsed onto the ground, clutching it, and crying out in pain as it ached and burnt itself into his skin.

He barely saw it as his vision reeled and he lifted his shirt to see it, his grip shaking and his vision seeing double. If he hadn't already been on the ground, Naruto would have collapsed...even _harder_ that time.

The seal was there no more.

In its place was a mark.

No...not a mark...

Naruto squinted before he cried out in pain as Sasuke's hand knocked his hands away and gave a small chop to his stomach.

He lay there, gasping and his eyes nearly squeezed tight in pain, before Sasuke stood up again and looked down disgusted.

"_I knew it._"

And then Sasuke _changed_, changed into _Gaara, _who looked down at him with eyes that spoke of an unstable condition and a voice that reminded Naruto of Kyuubi's, laced with killing intent that barely equalled the amount he could've used to kill him.

"_**Die.**_"

Naruto stared down at his stomach for no reason that appealed to his mind. But what he saw scarred him then.

Claw marks appeared with a sharp pain, etched in a single word: _**Game**_.

Naruto screamed as Kyuubi came rushing out in fire, chakra and enclosed with evil.

"_**AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--"**_

* * *

"--_**UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHH!!"**_

He screamed and sat up still screaming.

It took three rocks to the face to get him to shut up.

Gaara glared at him with animosity beyond belief. "Uzumaki." He growled. "_Shut the hell up._" He displayed a rock menacingly in his hand before throwing it just barely missing Naruto's right ear. Naruto laughed like an idiot, before he came to his senses.

"Wha?" Naruto gasped, his chest heaving as he almost immediately felt around his stomach before lifting up his shirt and checking once more. Gaara just looked at him like he was an idiot, before turning his attention back to the fire.

As Naruto tried to catch his breath, he brought in his surroundings. On the ground was..._sand._ Behind him was the ruins of a rock wall, and out in the distance was nothing more than sand, sand and more sand. The wall encircled halfway only, and in the center of what would've been a circumference was a crackling fire.

Gaara sat on the other side, his green eyes reflecting the flames in an almost friendly way, like he was awfully familiar with it. Naruto couldn't help but stare at it as well, unconsciously grabbing up the blankets that lay around him and wrap himself with them.

"So..." Gaara's eerily calm voice snapped Naruto back into his senses and back to looking at his companion. "What were you dreaming about?"

"Uh, this and that." Naruto shrugged, but in reality, he was forgetting what he had even dreamed about. All he knew was that the cool night air seemed to be like weapons targeting his heart and that for some reason, something felt out of place.

Oh, _now_ he knew.

Gaara had no gourd.

...and his clothes had changed completely.

Instead of the robes he normally donned as the Kazekage, Gaara was wearing clothes that resembled more of the clothes he wore _before_, but they were..._different._

Gaara wore a dark brown long sleeved shirt, and black track pants. Strapped to his thigh in bandages was...

"Gaara..." Naruto said quietly. "What...what's that...?" It was...a bone soaked with blood. Chills ran down his back as he registered that the blood...still stank as fresh.

"It's a weapon." Gaara replied, his tone calm and controlled as his eyes lifted themselves from the fire to Naruto. "What's wrong with you, Uzumaki?"

"What's wrong?" Naruto echoed. "I don't think I know anymore...HUH?!" Naruto fell into a mad frenzy as he threw off his blankets and scrambled around wildly, his hands grabbing and upturning every little thing.

"...what are you doing?"

"My headband!!" Naruto replied in a panicked voice. "My hitai-ate!! Where is it?! I can't find it! Gaara, did you—"

He stopped cold as Gaara raised a clenched fist and shrank as it opened. But there was no stone. Instead, there lay..._sand._ The wind easily blew it away and Gaara tched with an irked expression on his face. Gaara stood up, walked over and hit Naruto over the head.

"OW! What was _that_ for, Gaara?!"

"...you're speaking like a sane person again. But whether that's a good thing or not remains to be experienced." Gaara retorted, his eyes closed as he sat back cross-legged and cross-armed onto the sand on the other side of the fire that still flamed as powerfully as ever.

"...I don't get it." And then Naruto noticed that he was wearing something completely different. Instead of his clothes, he now wore a thick dark green hoodie that was still unzipped open, and dark blue jeans that were cut off at the ankles. "_Okay,_ NOW, this is weird."

"We've been in the Game for three days now, Uzumaki. You were perfectly fine before you went to sleep." Gaara stated, "So _what the hell is wrong with you?!_" The look of utmost disgust made it on his face, as clear as it could've been.

"...I..." Naruto shook his head, still confused. "What? Stop joking, Gaara! I mean, _c'mon! _We're _shinobi,_ right? I'm a Konoha-nin, and you're a Suna-nin, are yo—"

A harsh blast of sand striking the rock wall behind him cut him off and Naruto just _stared_ as it crumbled.

"_**Don't...**_" Gaara's eyes were like a demon's, with a sharp pupil in golden eyes, before they shut closed and Gaara gripped his head painfully. "...I don't...I shouldn't know _anything._ Don't tell me about _that world._ It's not like I'll go there, anyway...UGH..."

"Golden...?" Naruto gaped. "Gaara, what...?"

"I've been here for sixteen years, Uzumaki." Gaara said bitterly. "Or at least, a part of me has. The other half of me has been _living._ _**I**_, on the other hand, have been stuck here. And so have you."

"...what...?" Naruto's head kept on spinning. "Sorry, Gaara, but I don't get—"

"My name isn't Gaara." Gaara said quietly.

"HUH?! What the heck are you talking abou—"

"In the Game, it doesn't matter." Gaara said. "I've only recently just claimed my identity when my other half came back from...wherever you, the second half, came from."

Naruto glared. "Wait a minute..._second half?!_ What the hell, Gaara--?!"

"Like me. Like the rest of the Jinchuuriki who are unlucky enough to invoke the most of their Bijuu's wrath. Like the cages we are, Uzumaki, we can never escape. We cage beasts...we are to be feared." Gaara snapped as Naruto tried to say something. "Shut up, Uzumaki! I'm trying to explain this the best I _can!_"

"...go ahead." Naruto said grudgingly. "It's not like I'm going to _stop_ you."

"But you _are._" Gaara said simply. "Because you are Kyuubi's host. And you promised me you would."

"I _**WHAT?!**_"

"...the Game is where we fight against each other. We have to kill each other in order to move on, and win as the last one. Sanbi was just killed last night. We were there when he challenged us and suddenly collapsed and got erased." Gaara sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, which Naruto noted was spiky and _short._

"What happens when we win?"

"I don't know." Gaara said. "That's what you said you'd find out. That's how you roped me into being your partner."

"I...I see..." Naruto looked doubtful, and Gaara snorted, before throwing a rock at the center of his forehead. "OW! What the hell, Gaara-!"

"Go to sleep, Uzumaki." Gaara snapped his fingers at the fire, and sand erupted from the ground and covered it completely, leaving only a memory where warmth and danger had been.

Naruto immediately felt cold and reached for his blankets, but the action still lingered in his mind as he lay back down. He could see Gaara lying down onto his side, with his back facing him. "Hey, Gaara...how'd you do that?"

"_**Sleep. Now.**_**" **Gaara's voice growled.

Naruto shut up, and rolled onto his back, and stared up at the night sky.

There were no stars and the sky was an endless black. Bitterly, Naruto bet that morning was all black too.

"This is a dream." Naruto grumbled, hissing as tried to get comfortable on sand and rocks. "This is a nightmare I'll wake up from."

"A nightmare is where you're eaten by a Bijuu." Gaara spoke, more irritable than ever. "Which very well could happen to you if you don't get sleep to keep yourself alive."

"Can't you eat?" Naruto snapped back. "It might make up for some sleep."

Gaara was silent for a second, before his voice came back, almost pityingly. "Uzumaki..." He sighed. "The Game...you can't...OH FOR HELL'S SAKE!" Gaara sat up and glared heavily at him. "Uzumaki, you can't eat ANYTHING, because there isn't ANYTHING to eat. The only thing you can eat to grow stronger is OTHER Bijuu. OTHER Jinchuuriki."

"Cannibal." Naruto paled.

"The Bijuu eat that." Gaara brushed that aside easily. "_We,_ on the other hand, should focus on catching a Bijuu tomorrow."

"This is completely on messed up food chain." Naruto grumbled, as he sat up and rubbed the small rocks off their imprinted places on his bare hands.

Gaara smirked at that, before lying back down.

"You're telling me."

Somewhere along the outskirts of the Desert Country of the Game, a Bijuu sniffed eagerly into the air, before pounding each of its four tails in rapid succession on the ground borders.

And just like that, Level 4 began.

* * *

**So, yeah. The plot's changed, because I have lack of any ideas. If you're confused, it's all my fault, so TELL me I suck. Maybe I can get something out of that.**


	9. Chapter 9

* * *

**Chapter 9**

* * *

The first thing Naruto noticed was the lack of dreaming.

From the time he dropped out of consciousness to the time he woke up by Gaara's foot smashed into his face, there was just blankness where there should have been recollection of dreams. Now, while it was true that many people never _could_ recall their dreams, Naruto had a special habit—though it was more of a bad one, to wake up screaming each time he had a nightmare and spout weird nonsense whenever it was a good dream.

So when he asked Gaara, all he got was a blank stare, a sigh, and a sharp, "Keep walking, Uzumaki."

It had been _way_ before the sun had even risen above the horizon when Naruto groggily sat up, rubbing the aching side of his face and glaring through eyes with bags under them. Gaara just snorted and kicked sand over the remains of the burnt wood. Then, before Naruto knew it, he was carrying 'supposedly' _his_ own bag that carried only his blankets, several stones of various sizes and weights, and a HECK of a lot of sand.

Gaara wouldn't say why they had to bring the unnecessary stuff of nature, but no matter what Naruto said, Gaara _still_ wouldn't spill.

"Aw, c'mon, Gaara!" He whined, as they trudged through the desert. Naruto winced as the sand and rocks made their way stealthily into his shoe. "Hey! Wait up! I gotta dump out all this stuff from my shoe!!"

Gaara groaned, and rubbed his temples furiously, his eyes closed tightly as though doing so would make this whole thing a dream—or at least, a _nightmare_ so that he'd know this wasn't real.

"ANY second now..." He muttered to himself under his breath as Naruto tried to both dump out stuff from his shoe and hop through the thick sands at the same time in order to catch up to him. "I am going to wake up and discover that this was _another_ Game."

Something about that sentence caught Naruto's ear.

"Hey, Gaara." Naruto called, stopping as he watched Gaara trudge on. When the guy didn't answer, he called again, in a louder, not so polite way. "OI! LISTEN TO ME YOU WEIRDO JERK!"

"What?" Gaara looked back, a crease of annoyance where his eyebrows should've been. "Can I _help_ you?" He asked, his voice full of sarcasm.

"Oh, yeah, that'd be _great!_" Naruto, did not catch on the sarcasm, and put his shoe back on before he raced over to Gaara's side—which was _quite_ the feat considering he looked like he was lunging forward and half limping.

"...what do you want to know?" Gaara asked, in a rather raspy, unsure voice that made it seem like any more time around Naruto was like poking your fingers through dinosaur dung—it was something _huge_, but non-existent at the moment. And it wasn't _exactly pleasant._

"The Game, what we're supposed to do, and you."

If Gaara had been drinking or eating, he would've choked to death.

"_Me?!_" He was incredulous. "_WHY the hell would you ask--?!"_

"Uh, _yeah._" Naruto looked nervously at his face. "_About_ that. Uhm..._why_ were you here for..._sixteen years?_ And then you said something about the Game...the _third_ day...stuff like that." Naruto scratched his face, his eyes instantly reverted to the lines of hopelessness. "Uhm..._can you just explain_** everything?**"

"How about, _no, I'll take off now and leave you to die?_" Gaara snapped.

"...so _sorry._" Naruto glowered. "Hey, it's not like I'm TRYING to act stupid or anything!"

"Could have fooled me," Gaara muttered under his breath.

"HEY! I _heard_ that!"

"...Is that all you wanted to say?"

In reply, Naruto said nothing, but turned his head away to stare at something on the ground. And that was end of any conversation they could've had left.

The next few hours were spent in Naruto's attempts to catch up with Gaara, but each time, he would only move faster, until Naruto had to fall back to a slow, trudging walk and Gaara would do likewise. Through this, Naruto learned that Gaara liked, or at least, _preferred_ to be at front for some reason. It wasn't until Gaara turned and asked if he was walking fine that Naruto realized that he had been making a _path_ for him.

"Thanks, Gaara." He managed out.

"What for? I'm just checking to make sure you're walking fast enough. After all, when I had my arm skewered off, you did the same thing for a handicapped."

"WHAT?! So I'm _handicapped_, now?!"

"Mentally, physically, it makes no difference. You're still an idiot. That's handicap enough for your brain."

"WHY YOU-!"

* * *

The sun rose, and stayed up high, and by that time, somehow, a tunnel made out of sand had appeared while Naruto was on his knees, trying to catch his breath. His throat was dry, and his vocal chords felt like they would shatter at any sound. He really wanted to clear out his throat, but was scared of losing his voice forever.

"Crawl in on your stomach." Gaara ordered, and when Naruto looked half-heartedly and doubtful at its stability, he pounded the top with the bottom of his fist. "Go on."

If Naruto had noticed that Gaara's voice was still working perfectly fine and that he showed no signs of wear and tear, he did not show it. As he slid in forward into the tunnel, Naruto was graced with _shade_, the shade of the _gods._ A good twenty minutes or so—but, hey! Who was counting?—was spent just lying there, with his arms folded as a resting support for his face and his body sprawled out behind him.

"Hey...Gaara?" When Gaara didn't answer, Naruto knew he was angry. "Look, I'm sorry—"

"Are you thirsty?" Gaara bent down at the end where Naruto could see him, and offered him a canteen.

It was as though Gaara was a _GOD._ Without another word, Naruto took it with shivering hands and finished it all in one sitting. When he realized what he had done, he panicked. "AH! Sorry, Gaara! I didn't mean to—"

"Stop moving." Gaara said rather monotone. "You might break the tunnel."

"Yeah, sorry about that..." Naruto laughed, but his throat still felt dry. Then, he noticed something. "...Gaara? Aren't you...hot out there?"

Gaara pulled away from the entrance, and Naruto would have gone after him, had the youth's voice not growled out. "If you break that, I will personally slaughter you and leave you out for the Bijuu that's been tailing us."

"Tailing us...?" Naruto's eyes were wide. "...What?!"

"Stay down." Gaara ordered, and Naruto meekly did as he said. "Now, I'm going to explain to you as much as I can with the rest of the time we have left. The distance we could've made would've been far greater, but taking your state of mind into account, it's good as an average."

Naruto stayed silent and closed his eyes.

* * *

"There are nine Bijuu." Gaara said. "Have you heard about this?"

"...uh...I think...so, I guess... Uhm, Shukaku is one of them, and so is Kyuubi...but that's all I know."

"Hmpth." Gaara snorted, "Fair enough. Can't expect too much out of you like _this._"

".._.well, __**excuse me**_**."**

Gaara ignored that bout of sarcasm emitting and continued on. "It all starts with a little something called...jealousy. Which sprouted into rivalry_._ Which sprouted into hate. Which sprouted into a _competition..._of sorts. A battle of wits, power, and capability."

"A competition? ...then, it's this...this '_Game'_ thing, right?"

"Well, not quite. Not yet, anyways." Gaara closed his eyes and recounted. "Now, I don't know much about it, but I believe it starts off with what is known as the _Legend of the Nine Bijuu_."

"_Really?_ Could have fooled me into thinking it's about ramen and pickles."

"...what..._are_ they?" Gaara's voice asked, just a mild interested.

"UH, NEVERMIND." Naruto panicked, but it's plenty hard to panic if you're stuck in some sand tunnel that may come crashing down if you sit up, and that's just _barely_ enough to surround you without you moving your whole body around. "UH, what is it about that Legend thingie?"

"Well, now..." Gaara stopped leaning back, before snapping his fingers. The sand tunnel collapsed to the sides. Then, Gaara turned to face a very confused Naruto. "Sit up, look me in the eye, and I'll tell you all I know." A sadistic smile fell upon a sickened face as Gaara murmured, "After all, if I didn't help you when you were in this state, the _other you_ wouldn't be very happy with me..."

Naruto did as he was told, but couldn't help but speak out his thoughts. "...Gaara, what _did_ I do? I mean, what did the other me do? The other half thing of me something? What did I do for you to be so...so..."

"I'm merely aiding you in trivial matters." Gaara replied, his uneasing jade glare making chills run down Naruto's spine.

But Naruto refused to look away. This was _Gaara_ after all. Despite the fact that he was acting so different from his usual self—calm, withdrawn—Naruto couldn't help but feel that this was the sort of person that Gaara could've been had he _not_ been a Jinchuuriki...had he _not _been Shukaku's host.

"So...do we even _exist_ in the Game?"

That question caught Gaara off guard.

"What?"

Naruto closed his eyes—the sun that hit them from above made him feel like he was _roasted_ dry, his tongue swollen and sweat pouring down his brow. Sucking in as much air as he could, Naruto opened his eyes and spoke softly, feeling as though what he was saying was more than half-assed—it was _him_ saying it from the depths of his own mind.

"Tell, Gaara. Tell me all that you know and which to spread to these willing ears of mine."

For a minute, Naruto could've sworn Gaara looked _frightened_, but as Naruto looked calmly on under half lids, Gaara looked held out a hand forward. Sand formed there, in a solid formation of a long and sharp object, and Gaara used it to draw onto the sand as the sun's rays heated down on them.

"There are Nine." Gaara said softly, so soft that Naruto thought for a second that the guy was..._scared_ to speak. But then he remembered that this was..._Gaara._ Gaara was a strong individual. He would have no need to be scared. "Bijuu and Jinchuuriki, and that includes us. The Game started a long time ago...I don't remember much, but I recall a lot of bloodshed in those times. My predecessor was none, so I was here as long as you were, probably...just a little longer, though."

Gaara looked up at Naruto and his emerald eyes looked deep into Naruto's. It was as though he was searching through him, and Naruto shivered. He didn't like this, not at all. Apparently, Gaara was satisfied with what he saw in Naruto's eyes and continued, his eyes returning back to looking at the scratched sand before them.

He drew eighteen circles, and placed a number in each of them, up to nine, before going down to the remaining nine and putting the same numbers up to nine.

"Bijuu and Jinchuuriki are linked. That's the basic idea. So if one dies, the other does as well. If one survives, so does the other." Gaara ran a hand through his hair before continuing, pointing with the sand at the first one...number 1.

"Is that you, Gaara?" Naruto asked, pointing at that one, and then at the other one with the same number. "Then that's Shukaku, right?"

Gaara stayed silent for a moment, before he said something. "Out of all the Nine, five of them are gods of the Elements. Shukaku and Kyuubi are two of the five."

"Kyuubi is _fire_, I can understand that," Naruto sighed, "Shukaku is _wind_, because of all those _Fuuton_ jutsu it did last time..."

"Shukaku of the Wind, Kyuubi of the Fire..." Gaara listed them off his tongue as he depicted a small symbol representing each element over several of the circles. "Isonade of the Water, Raijuu of the Lightning...and Kaku of the Earth. The five basic elements...and their gods are playing this game."

Naruto caught on quickly. "Doesn't that mean...that _because _they're gods of the elements...that they're more likely to win?"

Gaara nodded, but then shook his head. To Naruto's confusion, Gaara tapped the big circle with the number 8 in it. "The Hachibi, Yamato no Orochi, ...originally he was weak, but circumstances have changed since then long ago."

"But he's not an elemental god!" Naruto argued.

"True," Gaara nodded, "But you forget the number of tails each possess. His power...is second only to Kyuubi's."

"You said...he was weak, though."

"Originally, yes. Hachimata was originally a weak Bijuu, but some fools intervened with the Game."

Naruto echoed, "Fools...?"

The growl in Gaara's throat was enough to remind Naruto of Shukaku's. "Humans...of where you came from."

Naruto was so stunned, he didn't know what to say. "W...what? B...but I thought that _Jinchuuriki_ were the only _humans_ that could come inside the Game!!"

Many thoughts ran through Naruto's head at the moment, but none compared to the fact that whatever this 'Game' was about, it was certainly not going to be something Naruto _wanted_ to know about. Gaara's mention the night before, that Bijuu...ATE the Jinchuuriki of the others was more than enough to churn his stomach. But because VICE VERSA was the same...!

"I feel sick..." Naruto murmured, his face turning a slight tinge of green.

"That's exactly how I feel," Gaara replied, as he pointed at the Yamato no Orochi circle. "And how I felt about that time. Whether you like it or not, you are linked to your Bijuu, all of the times. Past, Present, Future; it matters not at all whether or not you become its Jinchuuriki later on or before anything happens. You are connected to them...and you know exactly what part of them has been killed off...you know their weakness...and you subconsciously know what's happened to them and get an instinct of what _will_ happen."

"...so I know what Kyuubi will do next?" Naruto asked. "So...I know whether or not I'll...die...?"

"You'll get the feeling..." Gaara replied. "Especially if it comes to the Hachibi. Because when you two fought, it was a close fight. You barely made it."

"So...about the humans that came into the Game..."

"They _gave_ the Hachibi power. Due to their insolence, arrogance and absolute stupidity...!"

"So they came into the Game...what did they do—"

"They didn't come into the Game." Gaara said quietly.

"Eh?"

"It's a random thing that happens whenever and wherever—the least or the most likely place you expect it to come from. A rift in the streams of the Game's world...can cause a Bijuu to leave the Game."

That caught Naruto's attention. "Wait...you said..._leave the game?_"

"I'm not a parrot. I don't particularly _enjoy_ people repeating what I've already said." Gaara narrowed his eyes, but continued on with his sermon...of sorts. "Even so...a Bijuu and its Jinchuuriki are linked. But that doesn't mean that _all_ of them have Jinchuuriki. Just a few."

"I...see...?"

"A long, long time ago..." Gaara sucked in a breath, as though it was killing him. "The Kusanagi clan decided that they were all that. They were careless and used the legendary sword, Kusanagi no Tsurugi against the Hachimata."

"Kusanagi no Tsurugi..." Naruto repeated. "What...when have I...? I...I've _heard_ that somewhere before."

"It's a legendary sword." Gaara replied monotone. "Of course you've heard of it."

"No, I mean...!" Naruto rammed his memory. "I think I've seen it...before..."

"Yamato no Orochi proceeded to take the sword from them and absorbed the powers that lay inside it, thus becoming stronger. With the sudden increase in ability, he unleashed some...sort of...energy, I recall." The skin above Gaara's eyes furrowed as he fought to remember. "...he was...acting so arrogant. I—no, _Shukaku_, was one of the first few to awaken because of that. Then, he _attacked_...without warning, without cause."

"I thought..._all_ fights were supposed to be like that." Naruto commented. "I mean..."

"Shukaku is only second last when it comes to strength. But in chakra and stamina, we are the lowest. However, due to that, Shukaku and I have developed...a rather...affinity to sensing things. He nearly _killed_ Shukaku off. My hate about Hachimata stems from that humiliation."

"So...this is all based on revenge?" Naruto asked. "Is that...why you're playing this Game?"

"I'm not playing it because I want to play. I want to _escape_. And to do that, I'll need to either _win..._or get someone to kill me. That's where you come in, Uzumaki." Gaara stated, his eyes not even lifting up to meet Naruto's as he pointed to several other circles. "Basically, it's survival of the fittest. That's all you need to know."

Naruto was quiet for a few seconds before he asked... "How _strong _was the Yamato no Orochi?"

"How strong '_is'_ he?" Gaara spat out disgustedly. "Do you remember Isonade?"

"The...elemental god of Water, right?" Naruto asked. "Yeah, I remember. So what?"

"He defeated Kaku and I...Kaku of the Earth...Shukaku of the Wind...he defeated us both so easily. Of course, with me, it's no surprise," Gaara looked as though he had just swallowed a lemon by admitting that, "But then again, he was barely stronger than me, anyway. But his _chakra...and stamina..._" He looked up to Naruto. "He was third to you in that category."

"Wow." Naruto breathed, before swallowing. "But...Gaara...this is unbelievable. YOU expect me to...believe we're in a GAME? What kind of messed up--?!" A slow grin fit his face though, shaky yet eager. "...but if I can win...I'll be able to leave this place and go home! It's easy, right? I'm the strongest, I have the best chakra and stamina—then the two of us can go home...Gaara...?" He trailed off when Gaara shook his head.

"It's almost a replay of the Ancient Battle we had a lot time ago." Gaara glowered. Apparently, he wasn't as happy as Naruto was. "And we'll play this, again and again. This Game will go on forever...until someone dies...until _**all**_ of us die...both in the Game...and in the material world, where you came from."

"All of us?!" Naruto was alarmed. "But you said--!"

"I don't know anything much, but this is what you told me: _After I win and it's just the two of us, I will end your life with my own hands. Then I shall proceed to destroy this world as Kyuubi...and make it so that only I will be able to come back._" Gaara's face had an expression of absolute _disgust_ on it. "If the Game...I had no choice _but...but_ to team up with you. Uzumaki, don't treat me as a friend of yours."

Naruto stared helplessly at Gaara, before he realized that time had passed and that the sun was beginning to set. Standing up with shaky legs and getting rid of sand on his clothes, Naruto tugged at the bandages that adorned his arms, that cut into his circulation and made him dizzy.

He stared at Gaara, who no longer looked at him, but at the diagram of circles.

He stared up at the sky, where blue turned into orange at the tip of the horizon.

He stared up at the moon, almost hidden away by clouds of dark colours.

And then he turned and stared at the looming figure in the distance.

"Gaara..." he said quietly. "What's...that...?"

Gaara looked up from the sand, and stared almost emotionlessly at where Naruto pointed, unsure of what to do. At that moment, the sun set and the world was pitch black. Naruto looked around, and looked down at his hands—he saw nothing.

Staring around him, he saw nothing as well. He saw no light, he saw no moon, and he saw no Gaara and no trace of the huge shadow that had entered his range of view just before the sun set below the horizon that barely was.

"Gaara?" He called out, panicking, when the person in question did not reply. "Gaara?! Gaara, where are you?!"

Naruto felt something brush against his leg—before he could do anything, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and had the sixth sense notion that...something was going to happen...something...that was going to hurt...badly...!

The right side of Naruto's body began to tingle, but before Naruto could react, something lunged onto him, and Naruto heard the snapping of bones, and the sizzle of something deteriorating. He smelled the stench of dead, rotten flesh, and nearly passed out from the miasma that his nose found in the air.

Around his legs and feet, Naruto felt the shifting of sands, before getting the feeling that he was going to die.

"Stop radiating fear, Uzumaki." Gaara's voice growled from on top of him. Apparently, he had been the one to save Naruto's life. "Level 4 is more than enough of what you should be able to handle without pissing in your pants."

But Naruto couldn't move. He was frozen to the spot, robbed of his sight, his nose watering even though his hands clenched over it tightly, his eyes watering from unseen things in the air. He could only let out a whimper, and heard a disgruntled and frustrated sigh emit from above him as Gaara stood up, judging from the sand moving.

"Don't move, Uzumaki." Gaara ordered, "I can't do anything if I don't know where you are. And as you are now, you're pathetic. How do you hope to win and go _back 'home'?"_

The word was spat out with so much disgust and hate that Naruto believed for an instant that the _old_ Gaara was back.

The unstable Gaara that had nearly killed Lee in the hospital room, the one that had nearly killed him and Shikamaru...the one that had hurt Sasuke and Sakura...the one who had been hurt as much as he had...and had been far worse off...!

"Gaa...ra...!" He called out weakly, though in fear or desperation of knowledge that a human was near him and ALIVE, Naruto wouldn't know...EVER. "Ga...ara...! Gaara...! Gaara!!"

He heard the sounds of something being beaten. He smelt the rot flesh stench grow stronger and the yell that sounded garbled even to his own paining ears, a mix between a growl and a yell. Naruto felt fear for the first time in ages. It was almost like that time when Gaara had lost control and had...wanted...to..._kill...!_

Once more, Naruto felt the sands move and the harsh sizzle sounded through the air again. Naruto could hold it no longer—his breath—the smell of it all was all too much to bear. He slowly turned to the side and felt skin—no..._scales...!_

Without warning, he felt something attack him.

A muffled cry erupted from his mouth, but it matched nothing with the pain his arm felt, sizzling with the same sound, feeling as though it was being burnt right through to the bone...!

Naruto blacked out, but before he did, his eyes caught something as he desperately cried out despite everything, despite all the poison around him...! He did not question why he was able to see at that moment, or why Gaara had been able to still see while he had not. All he knew was that it hurt, and that what he saw barely registered itself in his brain.

Gaara stood above a bloodied corpse of cross-breed of a rooster and a snake. It was _huge_, and quite bigger than both of them put together. It lay dead on the ground, but that was not what caught Naruto's eye at all.

_No-_, what caught Naruto's eye was not the source of all this.

It was Gaara's left hand...a huge chunk of flesh had been ripped right out so that Naruto could see the bone...and around it was muscle, quickly deteriorating and melting to show large quantities of empty skin. It reached up to Gaara's forearm, before it became blackish and ate away.

Gaara's face was unreadable. A mix of pain and anger...but also...self-satisfaction...?

Naruto saw no more then as his head fell back and his eyes took on a gray hue.

Then for several hours, Uzumaki Naruto would be dead to the Game.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope that this chapter is enough for those confused with the recent change of plot. If it isn't (which I'm sure it will be), then put any questions in a review, and I'll try to answer them (whether in a review reply or in a following chapter). Anyway, thanks for reading!**


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